This poem was published in The Avenue Journal, Issue X: Dogs
If You Don’t Have A Dog
by Jessica de Koninck
you don’t have to plan
before leaving home
for a few days
or the rest of your life.
Things will remain
just as you left them,
collecting dust. When
you forget a piece of bread
on the counter, there it will stay,
turning hard and dry, or green
as a chrysanthemum
before bloom, but without
a heady smell of summer
that reminds you of the mirrored
lake and mallards flying.
At home only geese
line the pond’s edge, frightening
cats and small children.
What a mess they make,
and no cloth to clean it. Who carries
handkerchiefs anymore except
for show, a white wing waving
from a man’s dress jacket,
His feet rest on the ottoman
next to the dog who sleeps
away the afternoon
which you also have lost
daydreaming away the last
vestiges of autumn light.
The author of Cutting Room (Terrapin Books) and Repairs (Finishing
Line Press), Jessica de Koninck’s poems have been featured on the
Writer’s Almanac and Verse Daily. She has poems forthcoming in Image,
Epiphany, and Tofu Ink Arts Press. A graduate of Brandeis University
and the Stonecoast MFA program, Jessica was a winner of the 2023
Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Award. For more go to: www.jessicadekoninck.com or find her on instagram or facebook.
You can purchase The Avenue Journal Issue X: Dogs in paperback at Bookshop.org, or, if you prefer it in digital format, you can download the ebook in .epub format for pay-what-you-can (suggested donation $9) at ko-fi.