THE CHILDREN & THE DOG
mark carried the cardboard sign beneath his arm/ it
read: PUP FOR FREE/ 'do you think this will work?'
angela asked, looking up into his face/ 'yeah, it
should,' he said/ this is a very busy road/ cathy
held the plump tan pup close to her chest/ 'he's
bloated,' she said/ 'you shouldn't have fed him all
that weetbix angela/ i'm gonna get into trouble when
mum finds out'/ angela said, 'royce made me give it
to him'/ 'he was starving,' said royce/ 'he might have
been lost for days'/ mark turned to royce/ 'we'll
stay here with the sign/ you two girls go further
up/ that way passing cars will see the sign first
& then the dog'/
the big sky was forced westwards
with clouds like white sheep grazing towards the blue
mountains/ with sun & wind flying like kites/ the
patch-em-up dog caught cathy's eye & licked her
throat/ her cargo of fears contained within cars
speeding along the road/ the clouds could look
like children or dogs on some days/ many hours
passed/ royce got tired & lay down on the grass
near the gutter/ 'i have a bad feeling,' said angela/
'i feel sick'/ 'it'll be all right,' said cathy/ kicking
tufts of clover in a little centred heap/ 'someone
will take him'/
'but your dad says he has to go to
the pound or you'll be in big trouble'/ 'we've still
got until the end of the day,' cathy said/ late into
the afternoon every car shot by like a bullet/ no
one slowing down/ royce said, 'they're not even
seeing us/ i have to go home soon'/ angela prayed
into the dog's floppy ear/ hoping an adult in the
traffic might hear her/ the patch-em-up dog was
curled up in the grass/ 'they're all pricks,' cathy
said/ 'they don't care less about dogs/ & do you
know what a prick is?/ it's a man's cock'/
angela
said, 'i've seen a man's cock/ i watched it on a
movie at home/ a woman was biting it/ & the man
said, "suck on it like a lollipop bitch!"/ then he held
her head down & her arms were flying everywhere/
like she was a bird flapping her wings/ & her hair
was all messy like a bird's nest/ then white stuff
like cream came out of the man's cock & he let her
go/ & her eyes were rolling backwards & she couldn't
breathe properly/ & the man kicked her away & said,
"choke on that bitch!"/ do you think she died?'/ 'no,'
said cathy/ 'that wasn't cream/ that was sprog/ you
should know the right words'/
do you know what fuck
means?'/ 'yeah,' said angela/ 'it's when a man goes to
bed with a woman with no clothes on'/ '& then what?'/
angela said, '& that's it!'/ 'right', said cathy/ '& do
you know what rape is?'/ angela said, 'yeah/ a man &
a woman go to bed naked/ & then the man gets a rake
& rakes her'/ cathy sighed/ looking down the road
into an adult world/ 'i don't believe they will take the
dog,' she said/ 'because they've got shit for brains
& they hate dogs/ my dad said, "what's the use of
dogs?/ you can't fuck 'em & you can't eat 'em"/ 'i
don't eat animals anymore,' she said/ 'i could be
eating someone's relative'/ she looked down at angela
lying in the clover/
'you must never get into a car
with anyone/ particularly a man or a sharpie'/ 'what's
a sharpie?' angela asked/ cathy said, 'it's a man who
sticks safety pins through his nose & through his
ears/ who eats flies & cuts his hair with razor
blades/ anyway, best not to get into a car with
anyone'/ 'even my parents?'/ 'no silly, they're all right/
i mean strangers/ relos are okay/ but maybe not aunts
& uncles/ neigbours are no good/ never get into a
car with them/ they'll take you out in the bush &
strip you naked/ you will never be seen again'/ angela
pointed to an old car that had slowed down near the
boys/
'what about patch-em-up dog?' she said/ 'he will
have to fend for himself,' said cathy/ 'none of us are
allowed to have any more pets/ but i can communicate
with him psychically/ so we'll know where he is/ i
hope the boys don't get into that car/ we best get
back to them'/ an hour later the children & the dog
were outside the gates of the local pound/ cathy
lived up the road from it & the dogs yelped all
weekend when no one was there/ & they yelped on
week days during pound hours/ sometimes she couldn't
sleep on late summer nights/ because she thought
about the dogs/
mark led the others onto the council
grounds/ 'i'm afraid,' the dog said/ its head stretched
back on the collar/ 'don't be frightened,' said cathy/
'someone will buy you & take you home'/ & angela added,
'or we'll meet you in a better place where children &
dogs can live'/ royce took out his puffer & inhaled/ a
cloud passed beneath the sun/ his eyes searched his
feet for his own shadow but all the ground had
become darker/ 'we have no shadows, he said/ i've
got an aching leg & my bones are tired'/ mark being
the eldest, took the dog into the pound/ then the
sun came out & the council tree shadows spread &
shook at the grass/ & the childrens' shadows stood
beside them/
& everywhere a shadow was cast as if
the dog's absence was about to become apparent/ later
angela would fret/ not eating her tea for a fortnight/
& the dog turned & saw the children/ & the children
swam in the brown eye of the dog/ & it resisted its
leash wanting to spend the rest of its life with them/
'i want to grow old with you,' it said/ as it was taken
into the pound reception/ its four paws scraping
along the cement/ its tan neck wrinkled up from
looking back/ 'pounds are where the good dogs go,'
mark called out, 'because there are no bad dogs'/ a
year ago mark had gone to the r.s.p.c.a. at yagoona
with his father/ to do a school project on desexing/
& this is what he remembered seeing/ twenty-eight
soft paws in a wheelbarrow & loose necks with
UNWANTED written on the collars/ barrels & bins
of patch-em-up dogs to be incinerated/ & a house
sized pile of shadow dogs beneath thick plastic/ &
hundreds of closed & opened eyes in bags as high as
animal shelter walls/ dead dogs in truck loads to
the rubbish tip/ or blocking the drains beneath
suburban houses or stopping the waterflow of slow
creeks/ almost five years later, mark told a high
school counsellor/
'i could not comprehend dogs
stacked as high a a building/ malformed faces &
lost histories sweating beneath layers of plastic/
why were they ever born?/ this adult world building
its cities of dead dogs/ if i couldn't save the pup
what chance have i got to tear down the structures
of dogs?/ i have nightmares of being preserved beneath
the plastics/ the hot weight of squashed fur & gaseous
bellies taking my oxygen/ i am the dogs crying out
to a human society where no one will listen'/
& the
moment before the dog was taken cathy broke down/ 'i
don't want to live here anymore,' royce said/ 'maybe
it's the wrong place for children'/ mark said, 'i will
never leave you royce'/ & the dog's eyes said, 'i will
never leave you children'/ 'i think we might meet patch-
em-up in another place,' said angela/ 'or on another
planet or in another time/ do dogs go to heaven?'/ it
was as though there was a child inside the dog/ &
the child had four legs & a coat of fur instead of
clothes/ royce picked his nose & wiped it on his grey
shorts by the pocket/ 'i'm not gonna live to be an
adult,' he said/
his pale face & large black eyes like
a bat confused beneath the sun/ 'my mum & dad are
separating/ mark, have you ever been a victim of
crime?'/ 'no,' said mark, 'have you?'/ 'yes,' said royce/
'i walked into a shop when i was five & i was raped/
anyway, what football team are you barracking for
this year?'/ 'easts,' said mark, as he left/ royce
hovered around the high walls outside the pound/
too light for the earth's gravity & withdrawn/ his
skinny white legs growing on the gutter's edge like
roots/
cathy said, 'those pricks have shit for brains/
they can only kill the body/ but patch-em-up is
inside all of us'/ 'i'm cold,' angela said/ 'i want to
go home/ it's getting late'/ cathy threw a rock up
the street & it hurtled crookedly along its own
scuttling shadow/ 'i don't like the dark,' she said/
'even in daylight/ tree shadows don't bark or wag
their tails/ & the shadows of flowers don't catch
a ball/ & they don't look back at you in the same
way that a dog does/ shadows don't require love/
nothing replaces dogs'/
mark came back from inside
the pound/ 'the dog's gone,' he said/ if you could
imagine a young dog being led into the pound by a
stranger/ & away from the children who loved it
holding skies of tears inside/ then you would see
the back legs & long tail touching up & down on the
concrete & the lonely belly swaying with weetbix/
you will not want to see the dog's eyes or the cages
of yelpings before it/ an enormous blue horizon rolled
over into late afternoon/ lifting its mauve
blanket saturated with stars/ large streetlights
flickered orange to white on their splintery poles/
& five shadows fell down along the road towards the
dog pound & the sunset/ five shadows minus the patch-
em-up dog stopped dead at the brick/ four children
watch the skies of childhood diminish into adolescence/
they retreat to broken houses with pocket diaries &
chemist calendars/ where months hang from the walls
rather than in the sky/ where seasonal insects &
birds only reach as far as the flyscreens on the
wiredoors/ watched from inside the sky reddens & is
extinguished as fast as a match is lit & blown out/
tell the children to bury themselves/ to dig into
the soft earth of council gums & oleander trees/
as the wind comes to collect them like dandelions/
when the wind comes to their street to hurtle them
through time so that they must lose footing/ so that
they become birds thrown backwards or bees with
broken wings/ so that they must be shot away from
the street of childhood lawns & away from the dog
pound like five stars/ the children will become
exquisite light like sun behind sun showers & long
lines of rain pelting down/ the remnants of the
cardboard sign half buried in the ground |
