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Robin Hunt Sommo

Location: Rochester, Massachusetts
Email: robinsommo@hotmail.com
Website: http://people.ne.mediaone.net/Sommos
Pushlished In: Agnieszka's Dowry, Gravity, Papyrus


SNOW DOG

So much is left of you in wood --
carved in teak and pine,
whales and mermaids,
the picnic table built to your proportions,
only to be sawed down
when too many feet were dangling.
How you laughed.
I still have the bookcase,
with its dark rubbed finish.
Sarah's playhouse is a toolshed,
after a brief stint at housing goats.

So little is left of what we were --
vestigial daughters flock to you in dreams,
sing your songs,
shriek at your menacing jack o' lanterns,
hang their heads at your withering
disappointment,
hold your weathered hand.

In North Dakota you sculpted snow for us --
a family of people, and an English Setter pup.
Its nose was a perfect charcoal briquette.
I would go there, to Minot, to that field,
and try to find the traces
where the charcoal
seeped into the ground.