One Black Dog

It disgusts me to the very den of my inner barren stomach
Rising on haunches like a broken ballerina
Fat pregnancy with clotted matted fur along the under quarters
It snarls in vapid plagiarisms and turns its neck like clockwork
Half of a dog and half of a bear
Dragging part-lingering its wasteful stumps
Like jungle monsters, it walked fat on its claws
Curled underneath and imbedded in the pads
With my wide eyes and my tiny mouth carved
I half-life curdle and shrink into my neighbouring trees
Awaiting the coated procrastination of winters
When I shall freeze within my flesh tomb and the 
Beast shall be gone, sleeping with blood about those
Weathered obese blocks and a mouth frozen to the central nerves
A metro tunnel falling down the Devil throat and cut at the cord

One black dog in a woodland ashen day
Falling grey thunders under heavy black God
And the rampant inadequecies of flame and pitchfork
As those villagers rise upon their haunches
On this, the gut-cutting nausea of the blackest of black dog days.

Copyright © | Year Posted 2009



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Date: 10/17/2009 5:23:00 AM
Thought provoking write. Keep writing. Sara
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Date: 10/12/2009 4:48:00 AM
yikes..very scary very hall o ween...Bosch...hope you are ok my friend! Light & Love
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Date: 10/11/2009 8:13:00 PM
Wow... I really want to talk to you about this one. The imagery is riveting... and also kind of horrifying. I don't know what to make of it... I love this: "Rising on haunches like a broken ballerina" and the entire last stanza of course. I like the repetition of images such as "rise on their haunches".
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Date: 10/11/2009 6:16:00 AM
Very intense write, Nathaniel! At first I was feeling sorry for the dog, probably abandoned and then pregnant. But there is an intriguing darkness throughout this stirring poem and the descriptions are amazing! Love, Carolyn
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