Shelter

by Salerno, Carey

• ISBN13: 9781882295722
• ISBN10: 1882295722
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-01-01
• Publisher: Alice James Books

Summary

"In a volume as compassionate as it is unsettling, Carey Salerno questions the moral authority assumed in the narrow confines of the animal shelter. Abu Ghraib haunts these lines as the shelter takes on harrowing, allusive dimensions, and as the narrator weighs her burden of complicity. Shelter is filled with fierce and desperate yowling, much of it our own."-Michael WatersDisturbing because of the cruelty intended as kindness to animals and the speakerrs"s unflinching, relentless insistence on her culpability, these poems force us to consider whether we can be redeemed by our capacity for love, compassion, and personal responsibility.From "Certification":. . . shave a bit of tabby fur, pump the forearm a little harder this time, careful with the needle,not too deep. Even the drugged catrs"s ears press the skull. She cannot miss its vein, focusingsolely on the twenty-five cents raise. Wasnrs"t that enough to lean over and stab the heart, humor the vetrs"ssensitivity? Compassion: the slabbed certificate on the wall reads so. In the nameof all holies she, he, anyone willing to work for minimum wage may kill.Carey Salerno earned her MFA in poetry from New England College. Her poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and have appeared in such journals as Rattle and Natural Bridge . She currently works in publishing and lives with her husband in Boston.

Excerpts

From “Certification”:

. . . shave a bit of tabby fur, pump the forearm
a little harder this time, careful with the needle,

not too deep. Even the drugged cat’s ears
press the skull. She cannot miss its vein, focusing

solely on the twenty-five cents raise. Wasn’t that enough
to lean over and stab the heart, humor the vet’s

sensitivity? Compassion: the slabbed certificate
on the wall reads so. In the name

of all holies she, he, anyone willing
to work for minimum wage may kill.