Animal Love
 
What is the dog thinking
at this pace? How well it lives
in the truck seat, passenger side,
how untroubled by more wind arrow speed,
the olfactory curtains: pine tar, road kill, sea.
"Try not to think of them as diminished
humans," says the animal behaviorist,
as the dog grins, 60 miles per hour,
tongue in the wind.
yes, this must be love,
face in it, the twisting pendulum whip and weight--
dog frantic with it when I return
from somewhere, better at it
look how much better
at joy not split by memory. This and food
what else for the body
when I, near you, nose in your cheek
of fruits and flowers, cheek of my
father's thirty winters ago and eyes almost not
but green and light diffused and what was it
I want I need to know?
 
Artwork: Tracey Anderson / Collaborative Statements