Joseph L. Dahut is an MFA candidate in Poetry at New York University whose work has appeared in The Drake, Tail Magazine, and The Sand Canyon Review, among others. Joseph lives in Brooklyn as an educator, poet, and fly fishing guide.

Self Portrait as Racing Pigs

Eating fried anything,
betting on piglets
running the removable
hay race tracks. The gray
one flecked with fuzz
clucks around
the first turn, kicks
dust through the chicken
wire fence. The best
observations
pronounce themselves.
A constellation
stick & poke tattoo
is what I’d choose, because
dots on an arm
are the only thing
I can confidently
draw. I am watching piglets
race and I remember
my favorite endings.
Sticky children
bleat goat speak
at penned sheep
while their parents,
unaware and unhappy,
teethe on a funnel cake.
I suppose listening
is a language for wind-

the bell sounds and
the children go wild.

[image by Vincent Prentiss]