By Cold Water

Runt Puppies in the Shade under the Porch

| 4 8 Runt Puppies in the Shade under the Porch They are the neighbor’s or the neighbor’s neighbor’s, but mostly they are this brief homily from the gospel according to June: the air, after week-old sheepdogs roll through wild vetch, smells of wild vetch, the scent first-tooth sharp, puncturing warm air that weeks ago (Fun Country’s waterslide snowed in like a cruel joke) seemed a preposterous hope— but winter fills summer’s buckets, and here was here before we were with our gingham, beer and rhubarb crisp tasting precisely this tart because dogs peed near the stems, scrapped, or lay briefly spent inside foliate spills of shade. Milk-tongues dangling as they are now, flanks heaving, the cool dark divvied by thinnest ribs of light. ...