Goat in a Sidecar
Dorothea Lange, Photograph
Bound for California
Oakland Museum
Whatever goes must fit in the car Tied on the top
or lashed to the side Perhaps a child must stay behind
farmed out with an aunt who lives in town
Somehow the goat only a kid among the chosen
He has his own sidecar slatted wood lashed tight
to the running board on the passenger side
His perked- up ears graze the top of the crate
Here is the family at the moment they leave
We do not know where they are going or if
they arrive Maybe they turn back in the middle
of the panhandle Maybe they find land they can till
Maybe she takes a job as a maid
and he a handyman Maybe they end up
in the movies building sets for MGM