Devon Balwit
What Is It with the Dogs, Already?
The dog sits just beyond the sign No dogs beyond
this point, a wag, or his owner one,
raging against the machine with the smallest possible
rebellion, but we do what we can
from inside our cubicles, the secret surfing of the net,
the filched supplies, the dropped calls.
We construct wry memes and trawl for likes, taking
comfort in numbers. These days, our laughter
tastes bitter, like nicknaming ourselves to preempt
the bullies, or pitching our tent beyond the pale
before we are exiled there. Buried in the day’s feed
is the one gunned down, deported, unhooked
from a too-expensive chemo drip. Can we raise
enough of a callous to buffer pain? You tell me.
And so the dogs, with their still and moving pratfalls,
our barks of mirth to muffle tears.
Devon Balwit is a writer/teacher from Portland, OR. Her poems of protest have appeared here before as well as in The New Verse News, Poets Reading the News, Redbird Weekly Reads, Rise-Up Review, Rat’s Ass Review, The Rising Phoenix Review, Mobius, and more.
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