This poem was published in The Avenue Journal, Issue X: Dogs
Obedience
by Kristin Camitta Zimet
Chew toy, squeaker dug out,
she sags on the forbidden bed,
ears limp, chin rubbed bare,
and does not hear me beg.
Her hind legs are stiff, but the front
paws, so clever, burn in my palm.
She pants and stills, pants again,
as if patrolling our perimeter,
trying to stick her drooping muzzle
into a gap in the bushes, a low place
crunched by treefall. Out, through
the invisible fence, she needs
a way. Words never were much use
between us, so I lie down full length
belly to back on the rucked-up quilt
and tell her with my stillness
that the leash is looped and hung,
that she may break the long stay.
Go. She rises with a tail thump.
Over the hedge she trots into the sky.
Kristin Camitta Zimet is the author of TAKE IN MY ARMS THE DARK, a poetry collection. Her poems have been published around the world, in journals including Image, Rivet, and Sequestrum. Her work has been hung in museums and performed in spaces from arboretum to concert hall. She has had 17 remarkable dog companions.
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.