poet Eric Nelson Asheville NC

Click here for a review by Erica Goss at Sticks & Stones

Horse Not Zebra is available from independent bookstores (such as Malaprop's

in Asheville, NC), or from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or from Terrapin Books.

Links:

The stunning cover features the painting "Shake the yellow leaves

from the bough of your heart" (a line from Rumi) by

Laura Berendsen Hughes, cover design by Diane Lockward

of Terrapin Books.

And here is the title poem:

Horse Not Zebra

When med students are learning

how to diagnose symptoms, they’re told

think horse, not zebra—the common, not the exotic.

Which is good advice even if you’re not a doctor.

Like when your phone rings at 3:00 in the morning,

think wrong number, not who died?

Or if your love is over an hour late

for dinner and hasn’t called to explain, think

gridlock, not head-on; dead zone, not dead.

When the guy in the truck doesn’t slow down

much less stop when you step into the crosswalk,

think distracted, not son-of-a-bitch. Recall the time

your mind was still at work, how shocked you were

to see in your rear-view a woman in the crosswalk

flipping you off with both hands.

And if you’re steaming in a mile long back-up

because protesters have blocked the bridge again,

don’t think where are the damn cops

when you need them, think how,

when popping sounds wake you at night,

you think firecracker, not gun.