Hounds in the attic, written ‘In Synergy’ with “Don’t Forget” by Jane Szabo
stand on point, too,
lie on their haunches
and sit in chakras
or in downward dogs.
Sixty dogs later
they sit collected
in tissue paper
waiting with canid
patience for their
master’s return. One
china dog arrived
each birthday from
age two — the year
I was mauled — which
is either morbid or
optimism of
a mother grateful
I lived. I think those
dogs wait there above
— bits of dried sugar
linger on paw pads
from their place atop
each cake. Entwined now
in mother’s fierce love —
and mystery, too, for
I always loved our dogs —
these wait to burst to
life one fine day and
gambol with me in
asana at last.
Scott LaMascus is an MFA candidate at Antioch University, Los Angeles, and has taught college writing and literature for many years. He is a public humanities advocate whose leadership of the McBride Center for Public Humanities has resulted in a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Center has hosted writers including novelist Marilynne Robinson, poets Dana Gioia and Robert Pinsky, playwright David Henry Hwang, and author Bryan Stevenson. His recent writing may be seen or is forthcoming at Red Ogre Review, Bracken, Half & One, Teleios, Oklahoma Humanities, and World Literature Today.
