From the UCSC and Cabrillo College writing instructor, a poem called ‘What if the Its Beach dogs.’
From the UCSC and Cabrillo College writing instructor, a poem called ‘What if the Its Beach dogs.’
What if the Its Beach dogs
rose up—revolution! rebellion!—chewed through taut leashes
attacked every hand that fed them and—unsated—pounced
like famished pumas on every cruel hand that refused? What if
feral leopard-like poodles stalked west cliff drive walkers, loped fiercely
against The Law until their brazen fangs
found the meat of some tired jogger’s scrawny shoulder or ham-
string? Or if a savage beagle buried the weeping brains
of some state park bureaucrat whose desk faced a brick wall—
and whose imagination followed suit—
in the damp earth of butterfly grove where the monarchs light
like just-struck matches on the killer coils of shit left there
by maurading human beer swillers? What if
all heaven broke loose
from uncountable leashes and those liberated angels
taught us (we the lone disfigured litigious once-upon-a-time predators)
to attack every hand that had forgotten its animal past and—unsated—we
pounced brazenly on confused west cliff joggers?
What if dogless unleashed humans snarled up
to each pusillanimous law-suitor’s leg and sprayed a vote of protest
against the wimp’s tiny rolled trouser cuff?
Wait! What world will we inhabit? Create? How will we
explain to a weary Peter at The Gate
our cryptic solipsistic tautological machinations when
our time comes (I mean death, my dim friend) and we stand without
any bureaucratic ornamentation or protection in all our savage nakedness
before That One Unswerving Eye? Will we have to admit we knew not
their vibrant unfettered bark? Stop. Listen! To their adoration of the new day!
Hear that cacophonous a capella the beach dogs unleash
(beyond philosophy, above theology) that deep and saving
joy some among us would destroy.
David Thorn is a writing teacher at UCSC and Cabrillo College.
Local Poets, Local Inspiration, edited by Robert Sward, appears weekly online and monthly in Santa Cruz Weekly. Selections are by invitation.
