popcorn ceiling poem

 

We lived in a house with popcorn ceilings

 

 

I had no patience for the dog who would not

Stay in the lot seventy-five-yards downhill

Behind the house next to a polluted creek.

She broke her teeth chewing chain link fence.

At one time I ran electric wire along the lot.

She still got out, and the neighbors had a pool

That they refused to put a fence around.

No way for a dog to get out if she fell in.

So I took my dog and had her put to sleep.

We built a fence around the back of the house,

Bought another dog I named Dizzy Dean Kerouac.

She would watch baseball games with me

In the basement den till she went blind,

Purple-eyed, and died of cancer

At age five. The neighbors’ basset hounds

Died of cancer as well, living along that creek.

Goddamn good thing we got too big and good

And moved away where we could mistreat

Some more pets and raise our kids

Without cancer creeping in a creek bed.

About that time, I bought a pair of striped

Sweat pants like the Globetrotters

And became a distance runner.

And I was only halfway through

With whatever it was

That made me write it all down.