CONFLATION

Sometimes through atomizing mist, or now

And then from deep within a muffling fog’s

Opacity, there will appear three dogs

In placid trot, each leading, free of strain,

Their mistress by a leash, to teach her how

To run in autumn-winter morning dark.

And though I’ve never heard a warning bark,

(They are so used to me, and to her rein),

Still, they announce their slow epiphany

By jangling collar bells, as they (and she)

Emerge, developing a photograph,

Which prints, through sleet or baths of grainy snow,

An image half from ancient myth and half

From frozen steppes. Then, on the foursome jogs.

Well, all of us have somewhere we must go.

Len Krisak is the author of a number of books, including Even as We Speak (University of Evansville Press, 2000), If Anything, (WordTech Editions, 2004), The Odes of Horace (Carcanet Press, 2006), and Virgil's Eclogues (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010). His work has appeared in many journals, such as Sewanee Review, Hudson Review, Commonweal, The Formalist, Agni, and Hopkins Review. Among the various awards or prizes Krisak has won are the Richard Wilbur Prize, the Robert Frost Prize, the Robert Penn Warren Prize, and the New England Poetry Club Motton Book Award. Krisak was also a four-time champion on Jeopardy!