This poem was published in The Avenue Journal, Issue X: Dogs
My Dog Doesn’t Know It’s The End Of The World
by Mary Salome
The tulips! she barks and pulls me off route
her mind seized by the morning
her paws sure of the ground
her whole body aroused
while I tip my toes among
the landmines I’m sure are lying
between the sidewalk and the flowers
I’m scowling at the detour, and
anyway, what tulips?
Those are poppies.
I am terse with time
while she breaks free of it
No one told her
chasing flowers will make me late –
and it’s unseasonably warm today –
and they bombed the last –
She’s far ahead of me
dragging her leash behind her
insisting on the tulips
I’m too far gone to see
Mary Salome (she/her) is a queer Arab- and Irish-American writer and media activist who lives in San Francisco. Her prose and poetry have been published in Archive of the Odd, The Argyle Literary Magazine, and Rowayat Literary Journal, among many other publications.
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