John Macker
walking with wiley and zoey
she clasps her hands behind her for each
daily walk with wiley and zoey seems as though
her ritual is devotion but as an intruder I’d only be guessing
her days of roaring at deities probably done
her shadow on the dry land won’t betray her
as faithful as a nun her fate now more companionable
is fixed to the horizon, a compass point, a closed book
a point of rocks somewhere
she doesn’t seem interested in grandmothering
the earth or any point blank religiosity but maybe
she swam with sperm whales maybe she pursued
for one night in Paris the stuff of dreams
she doesn’t leave a trace on the trail
if not for the dogs she’d probably walk alone
maybe her last breath will be first do no harm
just as her first one was
I’d only be guessing sometimes I’m not as
devoted to ritual no she doesn’t offer her
name, affiliation or persuasion, no need to follow
her to the ends of where so many have gone before
her short white hair belongs to no eternal order
she’s slightly bent, sprightly, contemplative
seems patient with time like a river yesterday
she said, “What a lovely day, just the good dogs are here.”
John Macker grew up in Colorado and has lived in northern New Mexico for 25 years. He has published 13 full-length books and chapbooks of poetry, 2 audio recordings, an anthology of fiction and essays, and several broadsides over 30 years. His most recent are Atlas of Wolves, The Blues Drink Your Dreams Away, Selected Poems 1983-2018, (a 2019 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards finalist), Desert Threnody, essays and short fiction, (winner of the 2021 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards fiction anthology prize), El Rialto, a short prose memoir and Chaco Sojourn, short stories, (both illustrated by Leon Loughridge and published in limited edition by Dry Creek Art Press.) For several years, he was contributor to Albuquerque’s Malpais Review. His one-act play, “Coyote Acid” was produced by Teatro Paraguas in Santa Fe in early 2022. He lives in Santa Fe with his wife Annie and two dogs.