“Into the Known” © Bonnie Matthews Brock

 

Dog Duty

An orange sunset
smears the horizon
orange and evokes
no wonder from
behind watery
eyes blurred by
cold winter wind.
I walk my dog
in duty. I commune
with his frolic
in my thin overcoat.
Oblivious to cold
and to beauty,
his unfettered joy
at freedom from walls
dampens my longing
to return within.

 

Richard Dinges, Jr. works on his homestead beside a pond, surrounded by trees and grassland, with his wife, two dogs, two cats, and five chickens. William & Mary Review, WINK, Rathalla Review, Westchester Review, and Toasted Cheese most recently accepted his poems for their publications.

Bonnie Matthews Brock is a Florida-based photographer, as well a school psychologist. She loves hiking the urban and woodland trails of “anywhere” (and pausing often to shoot photos) with her very patient husband (and often collaborator), Ted. Her images have been featured on the covers of magazines such as Ibbetson Street, Wild Roof Journal, Poesy Magazine, Humana Obscura, and Arkansas Review; as well as on the pages of publications such as Oddball Magazine, Ember Chasm Review, Beyond Words Literary Magazine, Beaver Magazine, and Lateral. Her works are archived at institutions such as Poets House NYC, Brown University, and Harvard University.