Of Sky and Dogs

by D. Foy

If you find a dog
cowering among the star thistle
and vetch of some dusty August
road, and if you bring that dog
home with no intention

of keeping him, chances are
those ribs you had hoped would thaw
out in the backyard sun
before the coals got hot
will be gone. And do not feel

surprise, either, when three days
later your wife calls you
from the porch to nod toward
a skunk’s severed head,
its eyes and hair and little yellow

fangs still intact, quiet
beneath a steady play of flies.
And when at last you see
yourself two days thence again,
crouched beneath a midday plum,

surrounded by plums and flies
and that dog shot dead by a neighbor’s
steady hand, what, if anything, will there be
to say? The dog star has risen,
the dog star has its ways.

D. Foy‘s stories and poems have appeared in Kitchen Sink, Trampoline House, and Berkeley Fiction Review, among others. Most recently, an excerpt from his novel, The Last Time I Was A Woman, was published in Evergreen Review, and two stories were published in Quick Fiction and The Georgia Review. His story “The Burden” was included in a trio nominated for the 2008 National Magazine Award for Best Fiction. His website is www.dfoyble.com
Back to Issue One: Fall 2008