Lodestar Quarterly

Lodestar Quarterly
Figure reaching for a star Issue 13 • Spring 2005 • Featured Writer • Poetry

Discount Heaven

Christine Hamm

The dogs that eat us so sweetly
are telling us they love us the only
way they know how
with their tongues

we are beyond choke chains here
beyond leashes
beyond spilt garbage cans
accidents on Mom's best sofa

beyond chasing a squirrel to the middle
of the street beyond apologies
with tented sensitive brows for biting
the neighbor's boy as he held a tennis ball
just out of reach

beyond standing at their shoulders
as they strain forward we are
underneath now

it is slow this kind of loving
death it is the kind God reserves
for angels

you can see it as they lick their dripping
chins the sentient and caressing tongues
we are their angels

and we taste like presents like the ripping
open of presents to them

Christine Hamm

Christine Hamm has an MA in Creative Writing and is a graduate of Reed College. Her poetry has been published by Poetry Midwest, Exquisite Corpse, Kitchen Sink, Snowmonkey, Rattle, Absinthe Literary Review, Adirondack Review, and many others. She was also a finalist in the Atlanta Review International Poetry Contest. In 2004, she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She teaches poetry workshops in New York City and is the literary editor of several journals. Her chapbook and alphabet book are available at [www.lulu.com/sharpNpencil][link defunct].

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