One whistle to go after.
The man has ways
of communicating with his animal -
different whistles;
one to send it out,
one to bring back the prize.
When the man takes his dog
into a café, women cluck
and coo, comment on its russet fur,
its soft snout,
fail to notice how it reeks
of the kill.
The man tires easily
of conversations with women.
He is entranced, however
by the music
his own mouth creates.
Every night,
as the gun dog sleeps by the fire,
burnished chest rising and falling,
he pictures the fronds of scarlet bracken
rising like flames in an artist’s
illustration of hell,
him and the bloodhound
standing steeped in red.
And he practices curling his tongue,
pouting as if for a kiss.
Then he shapes an o and blows.
One whistle to go after.
One to bring it back, half alive.
About the Author: Anna Saunders is the author of eight books: Communion, Kissing the She Bear (Wild Conversations Press), Struck (Pindrop Press), Burne Jones and the Fox, Ghosting for Beginners, Feverfew, The Prohibition of Touch, and Eurydice in the Ruined House (all Indigo Dreams). Fran Lock said of Eurydice in the Ruined House ‘this is a deft and generous work in which to delight’, and Samatar Elmi described it as ‘ a triumph of vision, craft, and execution’. Anna has been widely published in journals and holds four Arts Council Awards. She is the Founding Director of Cheltenham Poetry Festival. Anna has been described as ‘a poet who surely can do anything’, (The North), ‘a poet of quite remarkable gifts,’ (Bernard O’Donoghue), and ‘a modern mythmaker’ – Paul Stephenson.
Image Credit: Jan Fyt Hunting Still Life with Dog (1650–1660) Public domain image courtesy of Artvee
As It Ought To Be 