The Dogs of Alishan
Given my completely random
And quite small quantitative study
Of its public canine population,
Likely one quarter is missing
A limb and only one was barking,
But another this morning was singing,
A stout golden retriever with a thick coat
Unlike the small pug and sleek-coated
Hound who knelt in the grass to shit
Near the train station, but I get why
They’re here with this air and food,
And the loss of foreleg or rear one
Makes sense what with the razor speed
Of cars and shuttles, especially at night
Here so high so dark, but my favorite
Besides the one of song was an old dog
Lying in the sun this morning, his back
To the closed door of the closed shop,
His right ear up, his left ear down,
Squinting wisely into the warm shine,
Listening to the high song of Alishan.
……
This poem is from the chapbook The Dogs of Alishan And Other Poems from Taiwan by Laurence Musgrove (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/the-dogs-of-alishan-and-other-poems-from-taiwan-by-laurence-musgrove/
Laurence Musgrove is a Fulbright-Hays Taiwan Seminar Scholar and teaches literature, composition, and creative writing from a Buddhist perspective at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas. His poetry appears in a wide range of journals in the U.S. and his three books Local Bird, The Bluebonnet Sutras, and A Stranger’s Heart, all from Lamar University Literary Press.
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