This poem was published in The Avenue Journal, Issue X: Dogs
Walking The Dog
Greg Rosenthal
Crunching dried leaves, acorns, and scattered beech nuts
Catching the first glimpse of Orion’s belt over the tree line
Leaning into the blast of snowflakes and sleet
Stepping high through deep, ice-crusted snow
Searching for the first crocuses to emerge
Seeing trees leaf out in fresh, light greens
Sweltering in summer’s sun and swimming in its thick humidity
Steadying an umbrella against a downpour’s fury
Racing between hurricane squalls
Tracking the moon’s phases in constant transition
Just walking
The dog
Greg Rosenthal worked in communications for the U.S. Department of
Agriculture for decades, publishing professional articles and blog posts.
He is also a U.S. Air Force Reserve veteran of the Gulf War, where he
served as a transport plane flight engineer.
Creatively, Greg has published articles, satire, flash fiction, and poetry in Pen in Hand and many Medium.com publications, such as The Writing Cooperative, MuddyUm, House of Haiku, and No Crime in Rhymin’. His book, Tactical Writing
Guide, is on sale on Amazon.com (bit.ly/TacticalWritingGuide), and you can find him on 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.