Doors and Otters

                       You ask me to tell it again
                        because the story amuses you

                        I say the front door refuses entry
                        to anyone wearing cologne
                        whereas the back door
                        is actually two doors
                        An outer one to bar entry to
                        hungry coyotes and another
                        to bring in babies left on the stoop

                        If the rear doors stay open
                        the house floods with howls
                        and gurgles leaving
                        the front door to serve as a
                        propitious exit onto that daddy
                        longlegs street where an orange
                        bus waits for the family to climb in
                        and take it to the movies

                        Your smile is tender and watchful
                        like a mated pair of otters
                        feeding their pups a trout