a three-shirt dog day
it’s reached thirty six
outside now
in this lush triangle
this green Eden
amid three Great Lakes
where humidity
weighs heavy
and my second shirt
of the day
embraces me
like sodden cling wrap
and I long
for the arid prairie summers
we left out West
dog or not
dog-walker or not
best to lie low
in deep shade
or, better
for this broken anatomy
this waning physiology,
to sit, near-motionless
reading, writing, editing
in the cool basement
with the a/c cranked up high
until this three-shirt dog day
has had its way with us
~ Don Mulcahy
Don Mulcahy was born in Clydach, Wales. He became a Canadian citizen in 1969 and now lives in Strathroy, Ontario. He writes poetry and prose following an academic career in dentistry. He has previously been published in professional journals, The Edmonton Journal, the CHS Newsletter (Wales), The Prairie Journal, Matrix, Coffee House Poetry (U.K.), iota (U.K.), Verse Afire, fait accomplit, blood ink, Tower Poetry, the Antigonish Review, and the anthologies Butterfly Thunder and Ascent Aspirations, Spring 2008 edition. He is currently seeking a publisher for a 59-author immigration anthology and for a poetry collection titled Existence Theory and 127 Other Poems. He founded the new Strathroy Writers’ Group in 2007. He also paints, having held a one-man show at the Strathroy-Caradoc Public Art Gallery for the month of August 2007.
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