The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: Love from the Outer Bands by Mary Block

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Allegory With Human Host

Trust me like the little dog has to,
having been so denatured.
Having so little to do
with a wolf. Follow me
to a sinking city
where the weather hums,
where the leaves grow monster-wide.

I put my faith in larvicide
and lizards, in the tongues of frogs.
I built a house from salt
and fossil shells.

Outside the bullfrog sings
for his bride, for the mouse
and the limp-tailed rat.
The tail of a cat or some animal flicks
at the slats of our bedroom window.

I told our boy, in so many words,
the fate of foxes.
I told him the tree frog is a friend—
that even poison has its place.
But still he woke with a red ring rising
from his side.

A ring of roses is either an amulet
or an ornament. Either way
I hung a wreath outside our door.

I said trust me like the little dog has to.
Trust me, son, to be the mother
that all soft animals require
and the little dog laughed.

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