Poetry – Iris Litt
THE DOG AND THE STREAM
by Iris Litt
When my neighbor told me
that his sweet dog
was seriously sick, I was sad, very sad
but when he told me
he takes her to the stream
that runs through my land
and she gratefully lies down
as the rushing water soothes the itch and pain
I moved beyond sadness. Something about
how the stream washes away all pain
and I pictured her dog dream:
the stream, cool against her hot skin,
will carry her to a dog heaven where she can
romp eternally with her kind and devoted friend
and catch the Frisbee again
SNOW IN THE COUNTRY
by Iris Litt
Snow, which is supposed to hide, reveals
the bootmarks in my woods
and tiretracks which, like fingerprints,
can be examined by the curious one.
Snow in its phony white innocence
serves loud testimony in this incredible silence.
Whereas summergrass cooperates,
bounces back conspiratorially after walkers,
snow in its alleged peace
squats on my land and, in ungrateful betrayal,
shouts of the inevitable unpeace of my life:
the friends who’ve fled to the central heating
of cities and tropical suns
and the one who stayed
yet examines the tracks of the suspected ones
until I, at the many-paned window
by the voracious woodstove, ask:
In this deep mountain winter with its hundred snows
does it matter who comes and goes?
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Iris Litt had two books of poetry published: What I Wanted to Say (Shivastan Publications) and Word Love (Cosmic Trend Publications). Her poems, short stories, and articles have been published in many magazines, including Confrontation, Onthebus, Central Park, Pearl, The Ledge, Earth’s Daughters, The Avatar Review, Bryant Literary Review, Poet Lore, and Hiram Poetry Review, as well as the Saturday Evening Post 2016 Great American Fiction Contest Anthology. She won first prize in the Virtual Press Annual Writer’s Contest and honorable mention in the short story contest of Writer’s Digest.