The simplicity in R. Bremner’s poems captures very complex ideas about love, dreams, and introspection. With just a few lines, Bremner achieves something quite unique: to pause the beauty that surrounds our lives and turn it into words.
THE DAY OF THE DOG
Just one more empty dog day
afternoon.
here alone in my quiet house
with nothing to do until you
return.
All these doltish activities:
play with dumb dog toys?
Oh shust, it's no fun without
you to tease and play the fool.
Bark at the postman, spew terror
into him? Aw hell, he’s not
a bit bothered with me stuck
this side of the door.
The cats, even the squirrels who
wander by no longer fear
my growls. They mock me!
I collapse into sleep, with dreams
of ripping tabby apart.
And when you come home, what
do you do as I yip and yap, jump and
slobber?
You scold me to get down, tell me
“Relax.”
Relax! Don’t you know my drab world
has just come alive, my heart is racing,
life is suddenly so great?
Better enjoy me. I won’t be here
forever, and you don’t even know
all I do for you. And all I mean to
you.
(appeared online in Poets Online, June, 2015)