First Date

by | Aug 11, 2020 | Issue Sixteen, Poetry

He said we’d rename every dog we saw

because it’s a better game than love.

I name every dog after favorite poem titles:

I call the golden, “If all of my relationships

fail and I don’t have any kids, do I even know

what love is?” He nicknames the dog

knowledge. I name the chihuahua “Fiction”

to save time. There is no nickname for fantasy.

The husky is “Things.” The German

short-haired pointer is “On Being Cautioned

Against Walking on a Headland Overlooking

the Sea Because it is Frequented by a Lunatic.”

He nicknames the dog caution. For every word,

there is a sentence unspoken, an owner

that chooses not to revise their love daily.

Today, I rename myself “Ugly Music.”

Tomorrow, I might call the dogs “You Can Take Off

Your Sweater, I’ve Made Today Warm.”

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