The Dog Speaks
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- The Dog Speaks
—Interior with Dog by Matisse, 1934
I'm only half-asleep so I know you're standing therewondering if I'm asleep. Nope.It's not easy to rest under this table—for one thing, there's a strong downward slopeand gravity's got me half tipped out of my basketlike an apple by Cézanne.Talk about a flat world!For another, I can't get away from these colors,the red floor tiles, orange table legand pink wall burning on my lids like the sun.Then again I'm never alone; the kids think a gray dog is cuteand I'm the only dog in the room. I was bribed(that's my excuse) with a boneand a bowl of fresh water. Really,I wish you wouldn't stare—it's extra hard to be an iconwhen you're not an odalisque and have no hair.Here's the inside dope, he wore a vest when he painted thembut saved his housecoat for me. I liked sitting for him,he was never rude and spared me his violin.I think I look very dignified, not naked, just nude. [End Page 210]
Michael Salcman is a physician, brain scientist, and art critic. He served as chairman of neurosurgery at the University of Maryland and as president of the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore. His recent poems have appeared in New Letters, The Ontario Review, Harvard Review, Raritan, and New York Quarterly. His two most recent books are Stones in Our Pockets (Parallel Press) and The Clock Made of Confetti (Orchises Press).
