The black dog has been chasing me,
snarling at my heels, wanting always
to eat out my heart, but I kept it away
with the momentum of body and will,
and gazed at it with straight lines,
then as it looked back at me with its
haunted eyes I spoke strength to it with
words that keep me alive and used its
terror to form the thoughts of a poem.

 

17/8/2026