A barking stray
trying to bite the whirling wind
gusts that blow loose
front pages
out of those locked
newspaper machines they rattle open
across the street
then paste up
against the locked windows and doors
of our locked house
like so many rain-soaked shutters
made from the world’s
cruel jokes
the latest black-and-white bad news
we would rather ignore
right there
in our faces
demanding we must pay
for what we’ve seen
— that dog
with its hot breath
likewise tells us
more about ourselves
than any of us knew before.
Brian Beatty's jokes, poems and stories have appeared in numerous print and digital publications.