the dogs

Joe Blades
From:   River Suite. Toronto: Insomniac Press, 1998.

the dogs

the dogs are restless
straining at their leashes
their chains
their domesticated masters

in mosquito and dryfly night
fireflies flash their here i am
in grass alongside this endless river
dogs pulling people along both shores

the dogs know me
and my living in the approach
of darkness—i am always here
sitting and watching this world

the steel blue-black river
breaks white with a leaping salmon
the air smells bladesian
with lightning from beyond

river stipples with scattered raindrops
the dogs sniff me out
but do not lift their legs
to claim this bench

the dogs read over my shoulder
as i try writing tonight
they thrust their heads in my hands
the dogs already own me

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Joe Blades' works copyright © to the author.