“to be used as you use your dog—” by Tracy Wang

June 18, 2025

Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “to be used as you use your dog—” by Tracy Wang, first place winner of the 2025 Jessamy Stursberg Poetry Prize for Canadian Youth, senior category. Due to its formatting, this poem is only available as an image.

to be used as you use your dog—

By Tracy Wang

after a line from shakespeare’s a midsummer night’s dream

i place the carcass of a bird prostrate at your feet; hands and knees, begging—a starving thing gone feral. i cannot choke up the desire lodged in my throat. god birthed me hungry—i am two halves of a whole ribcage scraped clean, dressing an altar in offerings—packing tape & sandwich crusts & semiplume. you get really good at making a dead thing look alive, making dying seem graceful—shrouded in ribbons and white lace—shall i strangle myself with the leash of my own longing, lonely like a creature that loves without being good for anything else? tell me i’m the only beast that matters. leave me in the car on a hot summer’s day. i’ll watch the pigeons in the park & want for nothing more than weightlessness—yes, a dead dog will forgive you. a dead dog is just happy you’re here—yes, i get so jealous of euthanized dogs. i will sink my teeth into the hands that feed me. ask me about devotion & i’ll tell you about violence i’m going to die in the universe i loved you in and i’m waiting for you to come home

Copyright © Tracy Wang

First place winner of the 2025 Jessamy Stursberg Poetry Prize for Canadian Youth, senior category.

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