Lois Marie Harrod
Story like a Dog
If a man gets a dog
in his head–say a stray hound,
a cerebral bitch–should he throw
her a bone? Should he invite her in?
She could be the retriever
that stays and begs, the scratch
that holds her little paw and shakes
the tail that fetches pen.
And paper. She might be the right mutt,
the one that lies down to be written.
Or she might run round and round
worrying his pencil in her sharp little teeth
until he throws it again and she fetches.
She might just mope there on the carpet
while he scratches out, whining
and snuffling through her fleas.
Bio
Lois Marie Harrod's most recent collection is a chapbook And She Took the Heart (Casa de Cinco Hermanas Press, 2016). Her 13th and 14th poetry collections, Fragments from the Biography of Nemesis (Cherry Grove Press) and the chapbook How Marlene Mae Longs for Truth (Dancing Girl Press) appeared in 2013. The Only Is won the 2012 Tennessee Chapbook Contest (Poems & Plays), and Brief Term, a collection of poems about teaching was published by Black Buzzard Press, 2011. Her poems and stories are widely published in literary journals and online ezines from American Poetry Review to Zone 3. See www.loismarieharrod.org.