EARTHS'S LAMENTATION

                             THE VIEW FROM

                             THE DOG TOWER

 

 "…three German shepherd puppies wandered away from

their home up near the County line."

                      --North County Journal

           Serving Northern Santa Cruz County

  

          I have been thinking about this little item that I read in the

North County Journal for a couple of months now. It contains the

boundaries of a small tragedy.  I know we are surrounded by so

much blossoming horror in the world (Vietnam, starvation, rioting,

living in hopeless fear, etc.) that three puppies wandering off isn't

very much, but I worry about it and see this simple event as the

possible telescope for a larger agony.

          "...three German shepherd puppies wandered away from

their home up near the County line."  It sounds like something

from a Bob Dylan song.

          Perhaps they vanished playing, barking and chasing each

other, into the woods where lost they are to this very day, cringing

around like scraps of dogs, looking for any small thing to eat,

intellectually unable to comprehend what has happened to them

because their brains are welded to their stomachs.

          Their voices are used now to cry out in fear and hunger,

and all their playing days are over, those days of careless pleasure

that led them into the terrible woods.

          I fear that these poor lost dogs may be the shadow of a future

journey if we don't watch out.

                                Richard Brautigan

                              Revenge of the Lawn

 

          This is for Stan, who gave me this book. In order to write you have to read. Brautigan and Bukowski are a couple of my favorites. Renegade California poets of the sixties and seventies, both dead now.

          This hit me like a ton of bricks this morning, which will kill you, but come to think of it, we are all hit by a ton of bricks over a lifetime and it does kill us.

 

Reviews

[darkgurl]

Hugh! kind of different, but well written and said....Kim

[Dustin Chang]

nice