My Dog Has No Nose

for beauty. She

knows not where it


nests, nor how it

flushes and goes,

nor how best


to close it

in her mouth’s

soft wallet, nor


whether, if she

brought it and

laid it at the feet


of her lord, he’d

mete out any but

the usual reward. 

Poems by Todd Boss

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Copyright 2009 by Todd Boss. All rights reserved. Reprint permission available upon request. First published 2009 in GEORGIA REVIEW.

Todd’s daughter Sophie with “Molly”

T o d d B o s s This poem came to me while walking my dog. I was bumbling along, admiring the beauty of the world, when I realized I couldn’t share that with her. She was only interested in those sensory impressions that her instincts could interpret. I wondered whether in fact we’re not all limited in our capacity to see and reflect on the beauty of the world. And that caused me to put me in my dog’s place, relative to my own imagined Master, who must take a far more enlightened view of my world than I do. <<< Return to the poems.Poems/Entries/2009/8/31_My_Dog_Has_No_Nose.htmlshapeimage_4_link_0