Poem - Aleppo besieged city

Poem - Dog in a pub

A dog

his loping head peers

round the corner

of the wall to see

what is what here.

I am thinking of my mother again.

He catches the breath

of my thought; a litmus

test – did I do good

or not?

Into his steady gaze I see

her diminished frame

her mind a room within

a room, I clean

until it echoes with empty

with the stillness of

a hospital bed

descending around

her marble eye.

He dog-gulps,

mouths a troubled stutter

gathers and restands

echoes somehow

lithe taut mute

and turns aside.