South x Southeast Magazine 2022
Poem by Tom Weiss Photo by Bootsy Holler
SETTLEMENT
I’m divorcing my dogs
Cooper and Stella
other dogs abound
but they’re not mine
we don’t know each other
in every glance and move
how to lie together
studied harmony
give and get
warmth and grace
absolute acceptance
these are our last days
an unintended consequence
of my personal global warming
inexorable tectonics long denied
now made manifest
it has taken so long
for deep movements
to become inescapable
where I live up here
on land
I had to step lively
or be consumed
in a fissure so deep and wide
I am amazed I called it
by a different name
for so many years
pretending it was a landscape feature
improvable with dirt bulbs mulch
so I’ll be here for my dogs
while they remain for me
I’m breaking eggs
an omelet for their kibble
to soothe the agony to come
they will adapt much better
faster than I
as they focus more on what is new
than what was lost
when I divorced my dogs
