Bark that Greets the Dawn

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Yet at the threshold, impatient at the wait
You bolt into the day's first gleam of light
And cry aloud --
A bark that greets the dawn.

You bark at shadows, shades I cannot see.
Perhaps the flutter of a leaf,
Or movement,
More ethereal than real.

"Be gone, you denizens of dark;
Awaken sun to warm this day!"
You call to duty, give fair warning
That they have overstayed their lease.

You take possession now.
Your bark, that rends the veil of silence,
Is this my whistle in the dark,
Revealing mere bravado?

What alien presence do you feel?
You sense intruders still?
If then my cheerful whistles fail,
Think you, your barks prevail?

Beware, there may be dragons!
Glance quickly round.
If none in sight, yet smaller types may hide
Behind the trees, beyond the hills.

Bark thrice, circle twice,
And then repeat again.
Is there some magic in your dance
To bolder grow with every pass?

Just as a mind may seize
That which it cannot know,
Convert to its perspective,
Its compass and control.

So think you by your bark
These creatures shall you make
To vanish or depart,
Relinquish this domain?

Here others played who now are gone.
And do you feel their presence still
While they lie resting
In the ground?

For here your mother in a chase
A rabbit caught and quickly killed.
You feel her exultation still?
Or do you sense the rabbit's fright?

And you, who here raise such a din,
Shall neither own nor long possess.
Shades yet unborn now wait for you
To join this ghostly retinue.


je seltzer -November 17, 1997