Hannah's Puppies

by Barbara Baker

This is Michael Carey for Voices from the Prairie a weekly sampling from the rich soil of Iowa’s literary tradition. Today’s poem is "Hannah’s Puppies" by Barbara Baker a young writer from the Sioux City area. It’s a beautiful small piece about what happens sometimes or better said, what one discovers sometimes when he or she turns things off, silences his or herself and takes the time to listen. It’s a lesson every good writer, sooner or later, must learn.

Hannah’s Puppies

Every once in awhile
one crawls on top of another
and then a small high cry.
I wouldn’t hear them
if mom and dad
weren’t in Omaha,
and the TV was on.
But I do. Just a few feet away
life has made its way
into our darkened living room.
From the kitchen table
I can’t see them
but I can hear their suckling.

Barbara Baker was raised in Sioux City, Iowa and earned her BFA from The University of South Dakota. She has worked in the South Dakota Arts Council Artist-In-The-Schools program; in publicity and sales for the Black Hills Playhouse theater; traveled and worked for a summer in Taiwan tutoring students in English as a second language; and as a graphic artist for a design firm in Sioux City. Currently, she is employed as a graphic artist in the Student Activities Center for The University of South Dakota. She recently placed First and Third in the 2001 graphics competition sponsored by the Association of College Unions International.