After I stabbed my brother
with a pen, he returned
with a dinner knife
that I wrested like a pen
from his grasp to write,
"Do you remember
how I forced you to memorize
the presidents of the United States?
They are all dead.
I have buried each one
like a bone in the backyard
for our dog to dig up.
When she went blind, she lay
in the sun and panted
for water she couldn't see
until we carried her
to the car like an empty casket.
'She will live forever,' I said,
'and you, you will sing
her praises. I am the dandelion
you pick to adorn her leash.'"

Tom Rechtin earned a PhD in English from Binghamton University where he won both the AWP Intro Award for poetry and the College Poet's Prize. He is currently teaching English at Slippery Rock University in Slippery Rock, PA, and has poems upcoming or recently published in Sycamore Review, Notre Dame Review, Lake Effect, GSU Review, Abbey, The Amherst Review, and The Paterson Literary Review.