In Memoriam
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- In Memoriam
The first photo essay to appear in The CEA Critic (78.1, March 2016) was accompanied by a series of poems by Lisa Zimmerman. Many of the poems were about Lisa’s beloved German Shepherd—her noble companion—Pharaoh. The photos and poems were also featured in The CEA Critic’s 80th Anniversary issue. Pharaoh passed as this issue was going to press, and I asked Lisa for a poem and a photograph to celebrate him.
—JRK
Lament for the Short Life of Big Dogs
The gray striped kitten I scooped from mudoutside a crumbling barn near Mons, Belgiumsat in my fifteen-year-old palmlike a tiny wind-up toy. Years latershe traveled with my parentsto New Mexico where, at 22, she spenther final days staring from a windowonto a birdless concrete patio.
This is not a poem about fairness or equity.My German shepherd and I are bothseniors. I accept my bifocals, he acceptssteroid drops in his cloudy eyes.Ten sturdy years together, our daily footfallsaround the lake. He still leaps at blackbirdsbalanced on cattails, sniffs for micein the tangled undergrowth.
To watch him bound through winter snowor another ocean of spring grassis a charm against the dayhe gets called, and not by me.
—Lisa Zimmerman
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Pharaoh (April 2, 2008–May 14, 2019). Photo by Lisa Zimmerman
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Lisa Zimmerman is a professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Northern Colorado. She has published five poetry collections, most recently The Light at the Edge of Everything and Snack Size: Poems. Her poetry and short stories have appeared in many magazines, including Redbook, Poet Lore, and The Florida Review.
