September 2019
Note: Hello, Verse-Virtual readers. I am an Associate Professor of English at Ohio University Southern in the south-eastern most nook of the state, along the Ohio river. Light & Shadow, Shadow & Light from Main Street Rag Publishing Company (2018) is my first full-length poetry collection. I edit Sheila-Na-Gig online.
We Treat Our Dogs Better Than Our Asylum Seekers
when at the lake we provide them with life vests
for the boat trip to the beach, then carry
the tummy-draggers across hot sand.
Well-packed with water bowls, Bully Sticks,
Frisbees, and sunscreen for neoprene-like noses,
the only cages are for protection from those
who would do harm, a place to shelter
from the 10 to 2 sun. At night we slip
anti-anxiety medicine into their Costco bratwurst,
dress them in cammie jammies, snuggle down
aside the fire. Because this is how we treat
our best friends, because this, right now,
is what it means to be an American.
© 2019 Hayley Mitchell Haugen
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