Greatest Living Poet
When You're Here, You're Family. [jimbehrle at gmail dot com] John Mulrooney, David Rivard & Tom Sleigh on 9/17 Joshua Clover & Sarah Manguso on 9/24Tuesday, July 18, 2006
My Quietude: On My Dogwalk
One of my favorite kinds of School of Quietude poems are the dogwalking poems. Although dogwalking is a kind of dreary and rote thing to have to do all the time, it is often the stuff of blockbuster poems! Please note: I started this before I found out about the death of Josh's dog. And before someone else mentioned dog walking. *Not making fun of them*. I remain, however, a horrible and unreasonable monster. Thinking of sending this one to Plaides. Enjoy:
ON MY DOGWALK
My dog contains many other dogs.
Housing many souls of dogs.
When she urinates in Mount Airy Forest,
They sprint into her butt
With a woosh
And hold a long meeting in her brain,
Which is the size of a cheeseburger.
I wonder if when Hero is no more
They can get all those doggies out
And reuse them, kind of like the way
They're able to turn smelly sneakers
Into sterile, safe playgrounds for kids.
She doesn't do any tricks, but religiously
Completes the USA TODAY daily crossword.
Sometimes I let her bite kids and laugh a little
And then blame the kids, their munched-on
Hands glistening with her clean transparent spit.
Why does everyone try to pet her and
Then hit on me? Please! Hero is all
I need, and I live for these 5 AM walks
When she squeezes her squeezy slice
Of plastic pizza and takes a squirt every
Five feet. I imagine a purple dragon swooping down
From behind that Florida-looking cloud
To talon-snatch her. Then I picture
A large gravied drumstick in her mouth.
She has this soft-eyed, heartbreaking and
Manipulative pout that I've learned to ignore.
I dumped my fiancee when she called Hero
"Precious." She isn't precious. She is a
The final resting place for the souls of some
Very serious dogs. At least three Lassies.
They argue in her brain about when to bark,
Whether to ramble after the ragged soccer ball.
Sometimes I wonder if she is also my grandfather,
Come back to Earth to shame me when I masturbate.
When Hero swallows a penny she poops out
A quarter. Let me show you. Got one?
posted by Jim Behrle # 
Archives
2006-06-25 2006-07-02 2006-07-09 2006-07-16 2006-07-23 2006-07-30 2006-08-06 2006-08-13 2006-08-20 2006-08-27 2006-09-03
