December 10, 2024


Two Dogs, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Bequest of Grégoire Tarnopol, 1979, and Gift of Alexander Tarnopol, 1980

August Dog SitPoetry by Alicia Mountain

The rain’s stopped
but Laddie still has
her tail tucked.
She’s still a little
unbrave on the couch.

I’ve broken into
the Speyside
from the cabinet.
I promised not to
open anything or
finish anything.
My saltraw mouth
from the edamame
stings.

If you tell me
about your parents
I’m going to ask
their names;
I’m going to ask
what they called you
when you were a baby
when you were in trouble
when you were hard
for yourself to pronounce.

What was the password
to disarm the alarm?
Was it Grizzly Bear?
When Harvey bet
on the horse, was it
Summer Squall?
Was it Sunday Silence?
Did the minivan
have a name? Do you
have a middle name?
When you say it
out loud by itself
does it sound
like someone else?

Cameron’s name change
went through and now
his initials are CIS—
how’s that for gender?

Elsewhere is Brooklyn,
Buzz is Buzz
Zander is Zander,
Han is Han.
Nora is Noondog.
Emma is Puppo.
Nova is Novisimo.

I’m me.
Laddie is barking
at some free and
unburdened peers
walking with a man—
I don’t know if
the provocation
is offleashedness
or their apparent
lack of storm trauma.

I understand.
Both turn me
green and barking, too.

It’s okay, Noondog
is coming back.
She had to go to
Liza’s Iyengar class,
but she’ll be back.

This isn’t my house,
but there is a shelf full
of books by Roger.
The wall photos
are the childhood
person of the one
I love.

We’re going to
make pizza when
Noondog gets back.
The thunder is gone.
Summer Squall.
Sunday Silence.
There’s nothing much
I can be jealous of.

I wasn’t out in the rain
this time.
I can sit.
I can stay.
I have a name.
I don’t quiver
when it’s called.

Alicia Mountain is the author of the collections Four in Hand and High Ground Coward. She holds a MFA from the University of Montana and a PhD from the University of Denver. Mountain is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Brooklyn Writer’s Foundry MFA at St. Joseph’s University.