James Galvin

LITTLE DANTESQUE


It turns out
The dogs were in control all along.

Hard by the hinges of hell—
A faculty party.

Everyone drifts
In their disastrous bodies.

Sudden furniture,
A hint of eucalyptus.

Someone plugs in the flowers.

1.
I've been a has-been.
Now I'm a was. I was
Promoted.


2.
The dogs were in control all along.
They saw everything.


3.
I had a happy medium—
Had her reading out of my palm.
The circus folded up and left—
A riot of life forms
And annoying colors whisked
Like bright scarves up a sleeve.


4.
The dogs want out.
How like them.