Dominance (a dog poem)

Dominance

Polo has her foot on top of my foot.

 

Dominance, the dog

books say. Don’t

let her.

 

I let her

as long as she likes.

 

I ask, What am I going to do, Polo?

 

Pet me, she says.

 

Where is Clover? I ask.

 

She answers, Never mind her.

 

Clover barks from the backyard at some unseen

outside menace.

 

Polo leaps off the bed to join the fight

for freedom.

 

I wait for silence to resume. The house is

still dark. Clover slinks back inside.

I shut the door, pull the lock.

 

Clover curls at my feet

under the lone lamp lit

in this hour before sunrise.

 

I hear a plaintive bark through the locked door.

 

Clover, where’s Polo? I ask.

 

She does not blink. Who?