Dogs Die Poem by Armadillo Poet

And they kill.

The first dog's
face looms as
large as a dragon's.

With her mouth
she presents a
ball and when
it touches your
face it is wet.

Wolves come one
night and tear
apart her sides.

She looks like
wet feathers:
wet-red feathers.

When she is
stitched, she
is shaved like
a bird and
the stitches
heal like scales.

One sunny day
we go to
the beach but
leave the dragon
on her chain.

She hangs herself from it.
I see flies eat
the eyes of a dragon.

The second dog is
always pleasant.

But once another
comes and bites her ear.

She bleeds on the carpet.

Once she runs
up a path that
is too narrow.

When she turns
around she starts
to fall,
on her leash
she is choking:
so I let her fall,
and she limps
for months.

When she is old,
she is incontinent;

So dragons also
are let to sleep.