September’s Poem of the Month is The Right Dog by Steve Evans. Commended poems are A Plague of Ologists by Peter J Meech and Big Red, Birdsville by Jacqui Merckenschlager.
The Right Dog by Steve Evans
There’s craft in this, a gift,
An art to choosing
The right dog
In the pound.
My daughter can’t decide.
It’s finally the promised day but
It’s too much for her.
There’s music in them all,
Keen as they dance from paw to paw—
Except one dog that calmly raises its nose.
Who are you, my daughter asks?
That slow gaze returning says:
I am half of our future days.
The dog has made its choice.
A Plague of Ologists by Peter J Meech
You’re certainly ill I can plainly see
But of course I’m only a local GP
I can keep you alive
But if you’re long to survive
I believe you’re in need of an ologist.
If your heart beats too fast
Then you surely won’t last
If it flutters and strains
In your chest you have pains
You’ll require a good cardiologist
Your ears have gone deaf
And you’re quite out of breath
You snuffle and sneeze
And you constantly wheeze
You should see the otolaryngologist
But before you go there
My bill you must square
And your account’s in the red
So before you drop dead
It’s off to an economic moneyologist.
Big Red, Birdsville by Jacqui Merckenschlager
Black lace shadows
stencil hot silk sand
as the last rays
cut the ridge
with pinking shears
and the dark cape of night
enfolds the far side of the dune.