A CONVERSATION WITH POODLE

I am not a dog at all.

But I am exactly

what you have made me

and what you continue

to make of me.

I am whatever 5,000 years

of life-building has done.

So ask:

            How long does it take

to get your hair just so?

How long does it take

to hold your head like that?

And I would say:

Before genetic engineering was,

I am.

But you might ask:

            Weren’t you in fact

a rather recent french trick?

and I would say:

            Nothing comes from nothing

and I believe it was german.

A poodle is not

an act of god.

A poodle is a symptom

of advanced education,

a highly developed

artistic temperament,

an unusual interest

in the accidents of breeding,

and too much time on your hands.

            Tim Fitzmaurice