Eat Your Dog

An Edict

Eat your dog,
You, a locus of meaning
Despite being transitory.
Eat while there is still flesh on the bone,
Not yet carcass
Or gendered.
Eat the dog or gnaw on its bone,
The femur is ownerless.
At the bowl
Sip water,
As oppose to slurping.
Manners make it the man,
If not the dog.

Reviews

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Now this one as an edict has me thinking. It gave me thoughts of thr Far East where eating dog is not unknown, maybe in a famine we would be reduced to this too. It also, for some crazy reason made me think of Hannibal Lecter! An interesting and thought provoking piece!

[John]

I hadn't thought of the cultural differences, and perhaps to some Asian readers the poem might make perfect good sense. I suppose inevitably the topic gets us thinking about cannibalism and other extreme and mostly taboo customs. Thanks for your response