Untitled Peradventure

And if, peradventure, Sodom was not so wicked after all.

The Black and the Irish made subhuman so those who enslaved them
   were morally unscuffed.
Homophiles made pedophiles so those who felt their institutions
   threatened could hunker down
And close their eyes and ears again
To the pain that their institutions
Whether blindly or pointedly
Had caused.

Peradventure the past is not made of monsters
It is made of cowards.

Peradventure there are cowards today.



Deference

You sniff the dumpsters when we walk by them
which is fair:
there's probably a lot
of interesting stuff in there to smell.

When we're walking
and you eat something off the ground
with a gross "crunch" sound
I do try to remind myself,
within reason,
that you know better than me
what it is
that made you want to snack on ground food.

If I found a black bean quesarito
sitting on the curb
still in its wrapping,
still warm,
I would at least be tempted.

And anyways,
realistically,
by the time I try to stop you,
you have usually already won,
started to swallow,
and all that's accomplished by my intervening
is that I seem like I'm being an asshole.

So you, this time,
whatever it is you see or smell,
enjoy.



Deference 2

it is fascinating and meaningful to me when you get to lead the
   way
not just choosing at an intersection whether we go left, right, or
   straight ahead
but when I fully follow
and you fully choose
going around and round a park over the same patch of space in
   every conceivable fashion of diagonals
nose to the ground
following something (I don't know what, but I know that you do)
   for as long as it takes
it is strangely easy these days to forget what is the real world
   and what isn't
I would do well to remember always that that moment with you is
   the real world



Reciprocal Amplification

We take care of each other, you and I.
I give you food
You give me a happy reason
to get out of bed every morning.
I give you water
You give me perspective
on the world
when we go outside to walk.
I give you a cool room to sleep in in the summer
and a cool room to sleep in in the winter
You give me a warm belly to snuggle up into
when I need that.
We also get each other off pretty often
And we share a sense of humor.
This morning when I woke up feeling like shit
It all turned around when I had a glass of water
and then I got down on the carpet with you
you wagging happy boy
and I shared wet kisses with the best person in my day to day life
an awesome dog who likes to make out with me
and who I like to make out with him a lot too.
A gladness filled my entire being
pushing out all else
at getting to revel in your affections
and to give affections to you in the same measure.



Meditation

Sitting on the dock with my pal on this lakey night,
meditation occurs.
I am sitting on my ass
hunched over
my elbows resting on my knees
my hands clasped together before myself,
holding this compact bundle of self together tightly.
My weight bears down on my lower back
and on the backmost portion of my ass,
the part of flesh which I sit on.
It has rained earlier today
and the dock is wet.
The ass of my pants is wet.
My body weight and the planks of the dock hug one another.
In front of me is my dog,
my friend,
my boyfriend,
my mate,
my lover of countless designations.
I can tell just by looking at him how it would feel
to reach out and pet him;
exactly how it would feel, down to every intimate discernible
   detail
texture, give, smoothity;
I gave him four handjobs in the last fifteen minutes,
one at each of his favorite places in these woods hereabout.
He was feeling eager tonight.
He sniffs the air;
I'm glad for him.
Soon enough I give in to his alluring aura
and lay down on my side alongside him--
who gives a damn if my shirt gets damp on the rain-moist dock--
and I respectfully pet his back
and watch as he continues to sniff,
picking up scents that
as he slightly turns his head and faces his nose and eyes
I can at least pick up on the direction of
and try to guess what he's found,
unearthed as it were,
in the air around our post at the edge of this lake.
At some point something worries him--
some sound, some disturbance.
I ask if he wants to go back inside.
He licks his lips to say yes.
I stand up.
With stiff joints he stands too, and leads the way.