-bestiary -

on the rug, the new dog

raised its empty head
and squatting hollow-eyed

in the strain of its circumstance

looked like a meditator
of the spiritual world—

like the Pope at the first
crack of pistol fire—

like Benito nodding pompously

cross-armed upon his balcony—

like ditzy Bernadette kneeling
at the foot of her burning bush—

like the passive wildebeest
trapped in the jaws

clamped at its throat
on the great savanna 
a moment before

I whacked it on the head

with a rolled-up National
Geographic.