Maryfrances Wagner: After Adopting Sylvie

A north wind outsings summer, shocks

leaves into freefall, blackens herbs,

reminds our rescued dog that once

she made her way on ditch water, 

careless mice, and spilled trash;

dug leaf beds deep enough that wind 

and rain and people didn’t find her.  

.

Only her collapse made it possible 

to loop a leash, shoot her with antibiotics, 

label her unadoptable, and pass her 

from shelter to shelter, far away 

from the family that left her 

on a country road, where they hoped

someone would take her home. 

.

Today, after a woods walk, Sylvie zooms 

the yard, a breath away from snagging 

the chipmunk who stumbled out from 

under a brick and flashed across the yard. 

She’s a hackle and haste hunter, but the chipmunk 

dives into a hole.  We call her, but she stares 

into the wind, feral Sylvie back on the road.  

 

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Copyright 2022 Maryfrances Wagner

Maryfrances Wagner is the Poet Laureate of Missouri. Her collections of poetry include The Immigrants’ New Camera (Spartan Press, 2018).