"by chance I could find you on Delta flight 172"
today you tended your dog
his hind leg wrapped in a clean black cast
standard poodle, dusting of sunset
my little subsister
the animal strutted proudly
all through his body
his plastered leg barely dragged
this was all while many other
animals
lolled
while many others listed
every burden a compensation
I love where you place the animal's
needs
his awareness of where you
place his needs
need is a reflexive gesture
between
the animal and the animal
need is a disciplined
pool
of thought
a throughway,
my love
riotous love brims on
site
the animal's informal
husbandry
all the other
animals
lolled
all the others
listed
love, then,
became our gentle
gabled clarity
your wet nose which I
will always miss
your brindle
your raised back leg
you: urchin, vagrant ocean
today I will tend my dog
today I will tend to my dog's standard cast
even when I am without the dog
today I will tend my dog
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Author Bio: Asiya Wadud is the author of Crosslight for Youngbird (Nightboat Books, 2018), day pulls down the sky… a filament in gold leaf written collaboratively with Okwui Okpokwasili (Belladonna, 2019) and Syncope (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2019). Her collection No Knowledge Is Complete Until It Passes Through My Body (Nightboat Books) is forthcoming in 2020. Her recent work appears in BOMB Magazine, Best American Experimental Writing, Washington Square Review, and Makhzin, among others. Asiya teaches poetry to children at Saint Ann’s School and leads an English conversation group for new immigrants at the Brooklyn Public Library.