My dog sleeps by the door, 
one ear folded wrong, 
a pale scar crossing her muzzle 
like a creek on an old map. 

Sometimes in dreams 
her paws begin to run. 
Not fast. Just enough to remind the body 
of something it survived. 

Outside, sirens wander the dark. 
A train pulls grief 
through the center of town. 

Somewhere, someone is sitting alone 
waiting for the last bus. 
A kitchen light 
burns until morning. 

My dog lifts her head. 

Listens. 

Then settles again against my foot, 
her breathing slow as lake water, 
steady as rain moving through leaves. 

I rest my hand on the warm rise of her ribs—

beneath skin, beneath scar, 
beneath whatever memory 
still startles her awake, 
the small stubborn engine 
of her heart. 

The window is open an inch or two. 
Cool air enters: 
the scent of damp earth, 
crickets, 
someone’s distant woodsmoke. 

She opens one eye. 

Returns her chin to my foot. 

Rick Christiansen

is the author of two full-length books published by Spartan Press: Not a Hero (2025) and Bone Fragments (2024). His prose and poems have appeared in As It Ought to Be, MacQueen’s Quinterly, North American Review, Oddball Magazine, Pennsylvania English, RHINO Poetry, The Rye Whiskey Review, Sheila-Na-Gig, Stone Poetry Quarterly, Thimble Literary Magazine, Trailer Park Quarterly, and many other publications. His work has been nominated multiple times for the Pushcart Prize.

He is co-editor of The Dead Pets Poetry Anthology (Transcendent Zero Press, 2023), serves on the proofreading staff of the I-70 Review, and lives in Kansas City, Missouri with his wife, Kim, and their dog, B.

Author’s website: https://rickchristiansen.com

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Baby Teeth, prose poem by Rick Christiansen in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 14, August 2022); nominated for Best Small Fictions

⚡ Into the Can, haibun by Christiansen in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 11, January 2022); nominated for the Red Moon Anthologies and for The Touchstone Awards for Individual Haibun; reprinted in The Dead Pets Poetry Anthology (Transcendent Zero Press, 2023)

⚡ “Not a Hero” by Rick Christiansen, a reading and short film by Alan Johnson (9 July 2021)

⚡ “Kites Without String” by Rick Christiansen and read by Alan Johnson, SpoFest Open Mic Poetry (3 November 2022)

As the poet wrote on Facebook in June 2025: “Alan Johnson, the British composer and filmmaker, made this lovely short film of my poem ‘Kites without String.’ We lost Alan last year. But his beautiful work lives on because he released it into the world before he was released from our world. Please watch and think about what you create.”

⚡ Always Something with Water, tanka sequence by Christiansen in Masticadores: Taiwan (19 August 2025)

⚡ Poetry Spotlight: Rick Christiansen and Bone Fragments in Flapper Press Poetry Cafe (10 October 2024; updated 22 January 2025); includes the piece “Hands” and the poet’s commentary

⚡ A Review of Bone Fragments by Rick Christiansen by Maria Nazos in North American Review (14 December 2024)

⚡ 85 Syllables for Spring, haiku sequence by Christiansen in Oddball Magazine (12 June 2023)