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EDITORIAL

ARCHIVE

LAGNIAPPE

MAST

SUBMISSIONS

Poem
by kathryn l. pringle


[obscenity for the advancement of poetry: 4]

of the 4-legged:

he had over 150 engorged ticks covering his dog body by the time they found him.
ticks with half-an-inch of puss covering their black bodies. they were sucking him
to death. the dog was a boy named Sheila. he could no longer move without want
ing to die. snout covered with pus covered ticks. long german shepherd snout. they
were sucking the life out of him. he lived in the basement. his mother lived on the
3rd floor. it was queens. or flushing. she didn't notice anything was wrong. he was
30% underweight. he was living in a basement that in california would be called a
crawl space. he had fleas. he was going to die. the dog named Sheila. they found
him. they had to remove every tick with tweezers. they put them on butcher paper
and they butchered the ticks of Sheila. the blood of Sheila popped out of their asses.
Sheila moved to the village after that.


 

kathryn l. pringle is a graduate of the MFA program at San Francisco State University. Her book, RIGHT NEW BIOLOGY, is just out from Factory School/Heretical Text Series. She is the author of The Stills (Duration Press) and Temper & Felicity are Lovers(TAXT). Her poems can be read in The Denver Quarterly, Fence, 14 hills, 580 Split, and Sidebrow, among others. She is an editor at the literary magazine minor/american, and the co-founder of the minor american reading series in Durham, N.C., now funded by Duke University.