4 August 2005 | Vol. 5, No. 2
When Dogs Rule
I watch the hound drape
a dead me with a red robe
instruct my child in morals,
correct my ethical shortcomings.
What of an orphan living in a steel dungeon,
home-schooled by a cackling jackal?
Such devotion, passed like a book
between hand and paw, overwhelms.
Perhaps the orphan prospers, goes to law school,
creates legislation for other orphans.
Perhaps the orphan gives a speech
thanking canines, forgetting his birth mother.
What am I saying? I'm no one's mother.
I'm alive, ears crusted, bathing my sores
in citrus pulp in a townhouse on the proper side
of town where we paper-train our puppies
in the kitchen and shoot hounds
howling at mopeds.
About the author:
Reb Livingston is the editor of No Tell Motel. She's co-editing (along with No Tell's contributing editor, Molly Arden) an anthology titled The Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel scheduled to be released Fall 2005. Her poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in MiPOesia, SOFTBLOW, Ducky, Unpleasant Event Schedule, Good Foot, and LIT. A native of Pittsburgh, PA, she lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and son.
For further reading:
Browse the contents of 42opus Vol. 5, No. 2, where "When Dogs Rule" ran on August 4, 2005. List other work with these same labels: poetry, editors' select.
