Last week, my friend Caitlyn and I saw Andrea Gibson. Her poetry and her performance were amazing. She has such a fierce presence on stage, you forget she’s a tiny little thing.
She did an hour of poetry – an hour! Of the poems she did I especially loved this one. Before she read it she said, “This is the best love poem I’ve ever written.”
After the show Andrea autographed my books for me (I have two of her poetry collections) but when I asked her to take a picture she grabbed my hand and said, “I’m really sorry, normally I would but tonight I have a migraine and so I have to decline pictures.” Having suffered through a six-month headache in 2014 I assured her I absolutely understood. Then I told her I loved her poetry.
Caitlyn was patiently waiting beside me with her camera in hand to snap a picture of Andrea and I. While we didn’t get that picture, Caitlyn did snap one prior, she calls it Standing Party to a Conversation Between Poets.
After the reading Caitlyn and I headed back to my place, talking about the reading and poetry in general. After hearing Andrea Gibson read her letter to her dog I knew I needed to write another poem to my beloved pooch, Daisy. I wrote her a poem for her 11th birthday, but she’s awfully special to me so she deserves another. This poem is based off something that happened a few months ago when my dog ate pot brownies (they weren’t mine and they were for medicinal purposes – it doesn’t really matter to me but I thought I’d clarify).
The Day My Dog Ate Pot Brownies
You started knuckling
as we walked, unable to control
your limbs, your paws flipped
over, the pads toward the sky.
Useless.
I scooped you up and ran.
Depositing you inside you began
to seize, setting off an earthquake
in my heart.
When I handed you to their waiting
arms I felt like I was handing off
my child.
You weren’t born from my body
but you were born from my heart.
You are the best parts
of me without any of the heaviness
to hold you down.
When they finally let me see you
you stumbled forward, the drugs
racing through your veins to counter
the ones you’d consumed.
Even in that drunk-high
state you staggered forward
at the sound of my voice.
I held you till they pulled me
away. I paced the floor,
the aftershocks rippling through me,
till I knew the heart
in your chest would keep pounding.
One day, when I say goodbye
to you forever, I’ll weave
through the rubble you left
in my chest and the city I’ll rebuild
will be stronger because of you.
Best poem of yours I’ve read yet. Probably because I have a dog for whom I feel the same way!
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