The Tribes of Dog
#1 of Poetry
I can't draw, so you get this verbal painting instead.
The Alpha Pair begins the song
Calling to the clans along the snow
Whale-ivory sinew-strung on whiter pelts.
The Old Man Tawny walks from the Dreaming
On hard cracked pads; shakes off the red dust
Curls his yellow tail, and sits.
Two black-backed tricksters next
Across the border of the old world and the new
Clasp sly paws to whisper mischiefs in each other's ears.
The Painted matriarch
Clicks and sparks with shells and beads
Freckling her pied-cloud-constellated fur.
Lastly, the maned, masked Mayan
That shy high-stepping apple-eater of the pampas
Turquoise-clawed and quetzal-quilled.
Joined in a ring, they lift their white throats taut
And fill the firelight with a starry note
The song of the Tribes of Dog.