Mad Dog Days by Sarah Sassoon

Photo by Karl Anderson

Mad Dog Days

It’s the same conversation

over paper coffee cups

standing

there are no chairs

to sit down these days

we don’t know

who has our back

Everywhere I walk my dog

there are whisperings

failing leaves

words filling the heart

tearing it apart

The wind whips

the oak tree branched

like stethoscopes reporting

an increase in irregular

heartbeats tightenings pain

I pause

even the dog knows

we have to stop for red

traffic lights ambulance sirens

wrecked russet leaves

See the change in color

the trees bend abandoned

bare to easterly currents

whilst we sip coffee wondering

how short our leashes are

and where we are being lead

The Author

Sarah Sassoon is an Australian born writer and poet of Iraqi-Jewish descent. Her work has appeared in the Michigan Quarterly Review, Ruminate, Lilith, The Ilanot Review, Consequence Forum and elsewhere. She is the recipient of the Andrea Moriah Poetry Prize, and shortlisted for the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Poetry Award. Her micro-chapbook, ‘This is Why We Don’t Look Back’ was recently awarded first place in Harbor Review’s Jewish Women's poetry prize. Sarah is also the author of the children’s picture book, “Shoham’s Bangle” (Kar-Ben Publishing, Fall 2022).