BARK, BITE, BEG, FIGHT, ROLL OVER

by Gabriella Brand

It’s a good day to be a dog

just a dog, with a dog brain

blissfully unaware of red and blue tallies,

unburdened by disappointment,

indifferent to triggers or loud words,

unless someone is reaching for a leash.

It’s a good day to be a dog,

fearless, undaunted, exuberant,

ready for any future, any at all

confident that tomorrow will be 

pretty much the same as today and

the hydrants will be in the same place

It’s a good day to be a dog

keeping dignity when the pit bull passes,

keeping calm when the cats tease,

looking neither left nor right but straight ahead,

putting one paw in front of the other,

tormented by nothing except maybe squirrels.

Gabriella Brand’s short stories, poetry, and essays have appeared in The Globe and Mail,  Grand Little Things, Gyroscope Review, Red Wolf Journal, and more. A Pushcart Prize nominee, Gabriella teaches in the OLLI program at the University of Connecticut. 

WE AS CATS

by Brian Rihlmann

there comes a time
to sit in the sun
to sit in the sun
and do nothing
but take in the world
the sights, sounds, and smells
and then close your eyes
relax and breathe
feel the warmth on your skin

more of this
could be a revolution
quiet as an infestation of termites
could transform the world
more than any religion
any ideology or messiah
any new invention
more than any solution
we could think of

cats understand this necessity
the importance of inactivity
instinctively, they know this
they sleep a lot
they do just enough
and they are sane
they bring out their claws
when they have to
pad around on soft paws
the rest of the time
leaving no futile scars
upon souls, skin
or earth

Brian Rihlmann was born in New Jersey and currently resides in Reno, Nevada. He writes free verse poetry, and has been published in The Blue Nib, The American Journal of Poetry, Cajun Mutt Press, The Rye Whiskey Review, and others. His first poetry collection Ordinary Trauma (2019) was published by Alien Buddha Press.