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Dog Park

One pup looks up
in the acre of lattice-shaded dog park.
when our borzoi arrives

Her muscles coil
around bones, under skin
too much inside

Boxer greets her
smells her origins, her moods
butt-up, play posture

Pose, freeze, run!
Thudding on mud, paws reach
grab earth and spring

Winter has gone yet
spring is not blooming
brown earth opens

Deep dog breaths
Pant to cool, ribs heave
Run more: squirrel!

Catch it! No!
Up the tree, bark to fork
long hind legs too short.

Decrepit leaves
quake and blow about to lure
hounds into gallops.

Panting, deep
earthquake breathing across
her rib lands.

Seashell sounds
of air, lying down in patch
of sun. Run out.

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Stacey Margaret Jones's poems have been published in Slant, Ariel, North Coast Review, Shelterbelt, Every Day Poetry, Five Poetry Magazine and Agave, and her short story, "Ugly," was accepted for the International Conference on the Short Story in English in Vienna, Austria, July 2014, where it was published in its anthology. Her fiction has also been published online in Bizarre Stories and Fear of Monkeys. She was an award-winning Knight-Ridder newspaper columnist in the 1990s and is now finishing her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Central Arkansas. She is a columnist for Sporting Life Arkansas and her columns and articles have appeared in Elephant Journal and Savvy Kids. She is a native of South Dakota, where she grew up in Laura Ingalls Wilder's own Little Town on the Prairie, De Smet.