yes that’s right another goddamn dog poem
howlellujah, sings Leonard Cohen
watching with sad, sad eyes as Stanley licks his scrotum
not Lenny’s – I mean his
what kind of a poem do you think this is?

what I’m trying to say is
another day is
just beginning
and I’m struggling
to think of something
that rhymes with beginning
sinning?
forgiving?
anything?

but all I’ve got
is a dog with a name that’s not
all that easy to lever
into a poem that hauntingly hangs together
and seems to be talking about something other
than a scruffy dog on a sunny sofa

well – sofa so good
I’d write something better if I could
I wish Lenny were here with his Spanish guitar
to drop Stanley in a stanza about the way things really are
but unfortunately he’s not
so we’ll have to make do with whatever we’ve got
which is Stanley, obscenely snuffling a lot
and some pissant poet losing the plot