#1251 - dogs of Dombóvár

 

1251

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