Cut-Up By Amy Gerstler

This peculiar ability of my giant dog

to shell and eat pistachio nuts,

to debate great apes at the National Zoo

and deny various tribes of aborigines;

to perpetuate the ornamental breeds,

resort to magic uniforms and to chew

grilled pork is not too pretty, but it is

a way of life and I am used to it by now.

From “Medicine” by Amy Gerstler

(Penguin Poets: 84 pp., $15.95 paper)