New Year, Same Old Bullshit (2012)
New Year’s Day a stranger stops me on a dog walk
and asks if Jake’s a border collie, which he is.
Guy tells me he’s had four border collies, which are way better
than poodles. Poodles, he says, they’re all bitches
both the males and the females.
Then he asks, are you a vet?
A lull in the conversation as my murky brain decides
first that by vet he means veterinarian.
Finally, I get it
the man wearing clip-on sunglasses was military.
I don’t know what I am anymore, I want to say.
But what can you say to a stranger New Year’s Day
other than Have a Happy New Year?
That ball had already dropped.
and asks if Jake’s a border collie, which he is.
Guy tells me he’s had four border collies, which are way better
than poodles. Poodles, he says, they’re all bitches
both the males and the females.
Then he asks, are you a vet?
A lull in the conversation as my murky brain decides
first that by vet he means veterinarian.
Finally, I get it
the man wearing clip-on sunglasses was military.
I don’t know what I am anymore, I want to say.
But what can you say to a stranger New Year’s Day
other than Have a Happy New Year?
That ball had already dropped.
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Previously published in Third Wednesday (Vol. VIII, No. 2)