the panther of skull hollow

The men meet
at the post office downtown
with coleman lanterns
dirty fingernails
bad breath
and rusty rifles
Their wives are always
sleeping with everyone
in town but them.
these women are shoving them
out the door telling them
to bring back that cat.
The party moves out east
of town in the back of an old
rickety pick up just as the
dark orange october sun is
swallowed up by the vastness of
osage county
The men dream of that cat as being
the trophy that would let them back into their wives intimacy
but
most men who live out east of town
would tell you that cat
doesn't even exist