Two Poems

Comparison of a Black Labrador with a Sikka Deer Skull

Nose to nose -
indeed, they both seem almost all nose -
those quill curl passageways
wondering back to a plump brain-place;

I shuggled the deer skull
by its sugar-cone tines and he startled
as if those slack teeth could still function.

That week I walked the dog, I thought
he is like the nightmare baby in the attic
that you have forgotten to feed

but he forgives you
in a clumsy pirouette of himself
when you fetch his lead

he has no problem in being too literal,
literal is all he is
meandering the line between skull plates
...