This poem was published in The Avenue Journal, Issue X: Dogs
No One Said⁽⁶⁾
by Doug Van Hooser
You will have a series of twelve-year marriages:
ㅤㅤㅤBenny, Tiger, Bernice, and Stella. All wagged
their way into my life. Their ice cream cone joy,
ㅤㅤㅤmooing eyes, licking loyalty. Bernice loved a lounge
chair of snow. For Benny, going AWOL but always
ㅤㅤㅤreporting back for duty. Tiger taught graduate level
begging. Stella launched like a torpedo off the pier,
ㅤㅤㅤclimbed the ladder like a telephone lineman.
And like an old, scratched L.P., repeat, repeat, repeat.
Four sweethearts I never bought a valentine’s card.
ㅤㅤㅤWhose gifts were unleashed. Whose memories are
table scrap treats. Never a divorce. Always the anguish
ㅤㅤㅤof parting by injection. Their ashes nap on the mantle.
I’ve decided to not marry again. To be dogless, which is how my
ㅤㅤㅤimmigrant Italian mother-in-law pronounced Douglas.
Her daughters forbade her calling me dog. I told her,
“Call me Connie.” That’s what dog sounds like in Italian.
Doug Van Hooser splits his time between suburban Chicago where he uses pseudonyms with baristas, and southern Wisconsin where he enjoys sculling and cycling. His poetry has appeared in numerous publications and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Orison Anthology. He has also published short fiction, and recently his play, “A New Beginning”, was produced at the Theatre of Western Springs. Links to his work can be found at dougvanhooser.com
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.