Red Cross Dog - Poems (Paperback, 1st ed)

All I Can Do
"I am the reason someone gets up
in the morning; I am the Red Cross Dog
and I notice how the country heaves
with unrest, how right before snow falls
the air smells like lightning (it's then
I dream of cut grass and flying stars)--
all the while, there is that deep rumble
in the distance, and even though I am minding
my own business and even though there is someone
telling me "Red Cross Dog, I know you'll help me
find my way back home," I cannot forget
that my country is falling and I cannot pick
it up. I cannot do this."
Patricia Zontelli's first collection of poems, "Edith Jacobson Begins to Fly," was published by New Rivers Press in 1992. She teaches art at the University of Wisconsin, Stout.