A r b u s
The Flaw
1
There was a dog that came
at twilight every day.
A big dog. Kind of a mutt.
He would come and just stare at me.
I mean a dog, not barking, not licking,
just looking right through you.
I don’t particularly like dogs.
Well, I love stray dogs,
dogs who don’t like people.
And that’s the kind of dog picture
I would take if I ever took a dog picture.
2
Nothing
is ever the same
as they said
it was.
It’s what I’ve
never seen before
that I recognize.
It’s a little bit
like walking
into an hallucination
without being
quite sure
whose it is.
3
You see someone on the street
and what you notice about them is the flaw.
It’s just extraordinary that we should
have been given these peculiarities.
And, not content with what we were given,
we create a whole other set.
And that’s what all this is a little about.
That somebody else’s tragedy
is not the same as your own.
H o w i e
G o o d
H o w i e G o o d
Prelude to the Revolution
Arbus