Member Poem

New Year’s Day a stranger stops me on a dog walk

and asks if Jake’s a border collie, which he is.

Guy tells me he’s had four border collies, which are way better

than poodles. Poodles, he says, they’re all bitches

both the males and the females.

Then he asks, are you a vet?

A lull in the conversation as my murky brain decides

first that by vet he means veterinarian.

Finally, I get it

the man wearing clip-on sunglasses was military.

I don’t know what I am anymore, I want to say.

But what can you say to a stranger New Year’s Day

other than Have a Happy New Year?

That ball had already dropped.