Who Cooks for You?
“Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you?”
the barred owl asks, perched in the pine.
But, really, she prefers to dine
on fresh-killed game, perhaps a shrew . . .
. . . or, better yet, a juicy rat,
a squirrel, a mouse, a tender bat.
The wild barred owl has untamed taste;
her favored meat is never boiled
nor baked, nor fricasseed, nor broiled.
A gourmet chef would go to waste.
“Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you?”
the barred owl calls, but all in jest.
She hoots and whoooo’s; she puffs her breast.
Then: swoops to strike, and seize and chew.
Who-hoooo-who-hoooo!
Who-hoooo-who-hoooo!
Christy Mihaly writes primarily nonfiction for young readers. Her picture books include Hey, Hey, Hay! (a rhyming celebration of making hay) and Free for You and Me, a poetic introduction to the First Amendment for young children. She has published numerous books in the educational market as well as articles, stories, and poems in magazines such as Highlights, Spider, Ask, and AppleSeeds. Two of her poems appeared in the 2018 anthology Imperfect: Poems about Mistakes. She finds writing humorous poems to be an effective antidote to existential angst.