900 Days

Marushka has some Alsatian dominating her DNA,

though her body is slight, her large head

 

at odds with her dainty white ankle socks. She looks

content, perhaps a little spoiled, but she smiles,

 

her tongue just peeping out. Milka has the look

of a generic mongrel, the big black dog

 

you see all over the world where dogs are allowed

to roam free. Her ears suggest Spaniel, but with pert,

 

pointed snout. Beck, too, is no breed dog: tall, but stocky,

as he stands in the ropes that secure him to the bench

 

where his saliva was tested.  Ruslan is vast and long-haired,

with a mask of black eye patches. Trained, treasured,

 

while taught to drool at the sound of a bell, these dogs

and their kennel mates, assured the route to fame

 

for Ivan Pavlov, only to meet their fate along with pets,

zoo animals, working beasts and even rats. Falling victim

 

to the starving citizenry; eaten by their human comrades

in the lab. Worse things, we’re told, happened in the 900 days.