1.
My dog’s tongue is a long pink lick machine.

2.
Victor Little Plume claims he’d rather eat
his grandmother’s dog soup than school lunches.
Any Day.

3.
Laying claim to Earth, Daystar masks
the bright shine of Sirius
engendering summer’s dog days.

4.
Joanie believes a recording
of vicious barking dogs
repels rapists.
Real dogs make her sneeze.

5.
Plains Indians refer to the time before horses
as Dog Days—honoring interdependence.

6.
The sociable docile beagle wags its way into lab experiments.

7.
Only a true dog lover masters the expression of anal glands.

8.
Beneath the city
in the morgue
the coroner pries the victim’s scalp
from the teeth of the Rottweiler
that shredded her pretty blonde head.

9.
If you lie down with dogs
you get up with fleas.

10.
Driving through Browning,
hub of the Blackfeet Nation,
we see more dogs than people.

11.
Corky, Floppy, Bruno
Becky Zent, Bearsy, and Belle
Hopper Doodle-Doo
and Piggy, too.
And BoonDog and Elliot
over in Mizzooo.
ow-ow- owooooooooooooooooooooo!
Howlers howling,
sing it to the moon.

12.
Four legged loyalty
adore me like royalty.

13.
Soother.
Companion.
Protector.
Friend.

Brenda Warren ~ August 2011