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5.vi.23
4.157
dogs of Dombóvár
and this is to piss off their owners
all teeth
best friend
and tear around
they are yappy
carnivores
simple as children
and like their prey
processed
best out of a can
sit Puli, Hajna stay
drop it
bark back!
it’s what you have to
do
it’s all they’ll
understand
good fences make best
dogs most angry
though sometimes
sheepish
you may set ‘pet lamb’
a dog like that is
Rezi or Jeno
each keeps its
kingdom tidily
and good dog must
accept
face fact
lest bite the hand
that feeds
down Otto, jump
Viktor
Vlodomir beg
dogs know who is who
they tug you round
the block
they haul you to the
park
and home!
think paper, slipper,
pipe
smell fear
down Árpád
roll over Attila
a dog may shit on its
own lawn
lay the bottles where
you will
that’s just
superstition
obedient to the fence
it knows
dog is a realist
though worshipful
and did I mention
teeth?
something not unlike
a shark
and polished and
still gleam
as much as to say
a dog is sharp, will
fetch
and carry
home to serve
dogs have held high
office
I think in the case
of Caligula
or that might have
been a horse
but
cave canem
anyway
they are the
unacknowledged beadles
your dog is a born
bureaucrat
looks out over big
spectacles
once wore a funny wig
guarding the stored
up treasure
you watch them dream –
demure
mild little lion each
how once and won’t
remember far
but the teeth are
what you see
in other people’s
dogs!
they know what they’re
about
some are geniuses
who calculate the
angles by glint
and cube a bone for
dice
they hear all
sniff much
here’s dogged luck
to drag your sled
across the endless
ice
dogs make each of us
king queen
they are good as gold
dine well when loved
with such sharp –
shan’t we call them
canines?
once they had an
eponymous continent
such ambitions sank
but you know how a
dog goes on
to get in the record
books
fearless they are
and feel no guilt
dogs are first to
forget
although they’ll keep
a grudge
and nurse it
roll over, where’s
that bone gone?
never trust the
neighbours
once foreign dogs now
speak the lingo
each is one of us
it’s sit up and beg,
Sándor
show us some of your
tricks
each is a prisoner
none can see
and that’s important
too
imagine if they organized!
people defend against
dogs with a dog
like guns for guns
and no bad weather
little man with a big
stick
they are so various
think
drug dealer dogs –
pit bull
guide dogs, rescue
dogs
and out of the laps
of real ladies
pretty precious
poodle bites best
there’s the pointer,
the retriever
sheep, cattle, kingly…
and some dogs multi-task
there are big police
dogs to tear you apart
Nazi camp dogs ten
leagues high
there’s the guide dog
knife through butter
streets
makes the unknown
safe
but I haven’t seen
one in Dombóvár
I only hear the barking
I only see the teeth
summer dogs compete with the cuckoo
the leaf blower, every other machine
and should one not
spare a thought for the cats?
and cats are also
carnivores
though each a fearful slink
a chancer
they are the refugees of town
familiars of the dark
ask them – they won’t even know if they’re stray
each has its secret ways, its haunts
dogs keep count of their lives
down Árpád
have a treat Attila
each dog prisoner of
time
each has his her day
let sleeping lie
on earth
as with the virtuous
pagans
our heroes in their
heaven
chasing the postman
the milkman retired
pepper spray would be
fun
… for a start
we could have a
cenotaph
dog gone is all I
could wish
you can see I’m
barking myself
when I wonder
just how many wolves
there are left
