A Man And A Dog Poem by Donal Mahoney

A reporter asked Wilbur once
if there were any advantages
to being deaf and Wilbur

used sign language to say
not that he could think of
except you miss all the gossip

and that's a good thing
if you live alone in a trailer camp
in a small town in Oklahoma

but it's not a good thing
when a tornado comes through
and everyone else hears it

at midnight and gets out alive
but they forget to wake you
and you go up with the tornado

along with a dog
you can't hear barking,
two small stars in the sky.