Bark Twice for Help

Poetry

WRITTEN BY SEAN WEST

BARK TWICE FOR HELP

I wonder if you remember how close we came to becoming a six o’clock news story that time during flooding season when we nicked your brother’s boogie boards and let the creek tug our pale bodies harder than any girl could I wonder if you remember when brown foam snatched our boards out from under us

then upper-cutted them back at our chins You were pulled down way faster than me. I saw your eyes turn at the thought you might not make it home to your dog who watched the weather channel when she was home

alone, whose sister died of cancer She would have seen you as a passing headline and barked until your mum walked over to turn the television

off. I wonder if you remember how I saved us from that.