“The Via Dolorosa To Resurrection Day” by Rhonda Melanson
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “The Via Dolorosa To Resurrection Day” by Rhonda Melanson, part of the League’s Fresh Voices program.
The Via Dolorosa To Resurrection Day
By Rhonda Melanson
It’s pouring and our Shih Tzu mix
scratches at the back door, tail limp,
torso shaking. Why does he want to go
out in this? Wouldn’t he rather stay
indoors, ignore the grey beating
on window panes and roof, stay dry
and uninvolved with this current storm
and what it dictates?
But like the condemned Christ, he treads
to Golgotha, nails himself to wooden deck,
allows a sloppy flogging of rain to drown
his little body.
He regards us with sad eyes, his way of suffering
a pathos for this moment. We call for him
to return inside again and again. He cannot
hear us for the pelting.
Then he scoots for shelter outdoors. Under
the trailer where the mud cakes his paws
and the dust stains his coat. It is near the elements
that he finds solace, the reality of the storm
never that removed from his senses. The five
senses: to see, to hear, to smell, to taste, touch,
to feel becoming the most important. Sustaining
him till the rain stops or till resurrection day
whichever comes first.
Copyright ยฉ Rhonda Melanson
Rhonda Melanson is a poet and retired teacher from Sarnia, Ontario. She has published two chapbooks: Gracenotes and My Name Is Mary. She also is an editor for the literary blog Uproar.
Fresh Voices is a publication and workshop program created by and for the League’s associate members, curated and edited by Erin Vance.
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