Today’s prompt: “write a poem that … presents a scene from an unusual point of view.” (http://www.napowrimo.net/day-seventeen-5/)
How to Approach
It looks like violence:
teeth exposed,
bared to view.
It feels like aggression:
advancing face-to-face,
direct eye contact.
It sounds like danger:
Loud, high-pitched,
overly excited.
Don’t they know?
You must hide your teeth,
Approach sidelong,
Eyes sliding off each other.
Don’t they know?
Never start with touch,
nor with loud vocalizations,
nor with insistent demands.
It must start with sniffing
and in silence:
cautious contact.
Only when the tail wags
and the mouth pants:
only then do you play.
John the Librarian 