441 Readings | 3 Ratings
Collateral
Once I watched my neighbor, returned
from the Gulf, bring a weathered length
of scrap two-by-four down, withouthesitating, upon the wrecked
spine of a Dalmatian stray. Weekshe’d kept her in the alleyway
behind the garage, her neck tiedto his Ford with an extension
cord. Nights, after he’d stumble homedrunk, I’d listen to him shout &
lay into her until he wasdone. In that moment though, it was
as if this world had never beenmore pure, that the rasped October
breeze through the birch trees on our streetmeant nothing, saw nothing, could say
nothing. There was only silence,then a clang of wood on concrete
&, somewhere, the dead leaves stirring.Posted 05/26/10