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Dogma

Text of Poem

Sucked and bitten I shake
puppy questions from dry dugs
of thought, leave the kennel
classroom to the litter of students
and trot down the street alone.
Store windows shelter my reflection
as my eyes tiptoe around crowded faces,
I shrink at the call of a familiar voice,
gallop away from a proffered greeting,
pad on stealthy notions toward a cave,
lest I am caught without my collar
and no one calls my owner.

First Line
Sucked and bitten I shake
Original Pub Location
Original Publication Date
1969
Original Citation
Virginia Quarterly Review 45 (Winter 1969) 64.
Complete Poems
211
Hearst Collections
Word Count
74
Poetic Form
open
Themes