This poem was published in The Avenue Journal, Issue X: Dogs
dog gods
by Kathy O’Fallon
Chase and rumble,
shoulder to shoulder,
my lab and the neighbor’s mutt
grab each other’s collars,
drag through the grass beside the gulch,
legs entwined like pants
tumbling in the dryer.
Where one sniffs, the other follows.
The river, a living entertainment—
frogs leap like theater popcorn,
reeds a Zen-like refreshment,
mud a saddle blanket for the pups.
They take turns peeing
on the Indian paintbrush,
the manzanitas hard as stubbornness,
greet strangers on the trail
like smoke-signaled kinfolk,
make no exception for the poison oak.
Kathy O’Fallon’s poems have been published in journals, magazines, and anthologies such as RATTLE, MER, and Kestrel, along with three chapbooks and a fourth scheduled for release this fall, Variations on a Theme of Love. Listening for Tchaikovsky has been a finalist in several length contests. She is a clinical psychologist in Carlsbad, CA.
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.