"DOG DAYS" by by Kiarra Lynn Smith - Contest Entry

DOG DAYS

by Kiarra Lynn Smith

All of these animals on the streets:

something must be done.

I will build my empire around you to feel

your whiskers on my cheek.

I'll do anything for the bark

that brings childhood back to me.

Let's go to the park, let's play frisbee all day.

I'll shelter you from December winds

as we walk past tents downtown.

You'll find refuge in my arms.

Fur against skin, the natural way,

the way it has always been.

You and I in August.

Taking a different bicycle trail to avoid

those protesters and their rhetoric

of police sticks, bruising blue on melanin.

Blue as the eyes I saw when 

you gazed at me through the shelter bars.

Here's a treat, you'll never go hungry.

We frolic past the food stamp line.

You and I, fur against skin.

The way it has always been.