Monthly Archives: August 2025
You and Your Kind
Dogeared
Charlie came back
with a little less of himself.
A sliver of ear gone;
dog park tax,
paid in blood and swagger.
He doesn’t tell me who took it.
Never pipped a squeak.
Bait dogs know the difference.
Out there,
the world takes pieces.
Sometimes it’s bone,
sometimes it’s time.
Charlie lets them have
what they can bite off.
He knows it’s never personal.
I touch the edgeragged,
warm,
and he looks at me
with eyes that say
this is the price,
and the prize,
of running with wolves.
