AnnMarie Eldon

a mongrel will do (any mongrel) or a

pedigree: the seemingly endless choice

and/or the distinction makes no difference




first you must ensure you get a dog

any dog will do own it borrow it beg

it steal it capture it but get one make

sure it has a collar and a leash and take

it with you on a car journey get a friend

to drive you so that you can sit

in the back

with the dog it must not know where you

are taking it perhaps you will not know where you

are taking it but take it somewhere out in the countryside

in bright daylight make sure you hold it tight

in the back of the car so that it follows

                                your every move

when you think you have discovered the right place

get the car to stop pull over and take the dog out

walk a little way from the car and stop

                                                 stop

you and the dog in the carbonmonoxided dried

prefantasized Wild Flower Collection scattered

wayside and hold the dog firmly by its collar

feel its legs tremble its body fat thin muscular

or not it doesn't matter but feel its body shake

there's empathy and sympathy but don't allow

yourself any half-baked measures get the dog's fear

running through you squat

down in the lay-bye and keep hold of its collar let-

ing its leash dangle in the feathery grass detritus

like an unfinished sentence

talk to the dog tell it your life's history

your desires especially your desires and be as explicit

as you can make it the keeper of your worst secret

and when and only when you have taken up the slack

of its merest nascent vulnerability and just at

the very moment it begins to trust you don't balk

accuse it of its own sentimental hostility and making sure you

                                                                      are level 

                                                    with its pleading

                                    watery eyes

then and only then might you realise

what it's like not to be

able to talk

back

# posted by AnnMarie Eldon @ 4:57 pm 0 comments