{"sf1_id":2250988,"sf2_id":"AnKX0yj1","title":"The Black Dog Learns to Read","author":"Dakaar","words":111,"posted_at":"2025-05-10T07:37:57.000Z","tags":["Poetry"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/2250988-the-black-dog-learns-to-read","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/AnKX0yj1","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/75/4a/754a3e6d-887a-4762-b69e-2c971de2e570","description":"Freeform poetry from the introspective collection, Black Dog, that runs with a folkloric figure that is often associated with misfortune and used as a metaphor for depression. Black Dog looks at this figure and gives him a voice, letting him bark back at a society that's already made up its mind about him.","content":"Wet at the eyes, he’s left squinting\n\n \n\nin the light of something that never touched him,\n\n \n\nextinct as stars,\n\n \n\nthe prolonged exposure of headlights\n\n \n\nblurring as they unravel\n\n \n\ngoing the other way.\n\n \n\nIf only it were as distant.\n\n \n\nThat is the hurt of it - the shortness of reach.\n\n \n\nAs close as water, sunset painted,\n\n \n\nthe rose and turquoise gleam,\n\n \n\nand he longs to be an island in its grip.\n\n \n\nBut he’s a Black Dog on the shoreline\n\n \n\nthrown away from its glare,\n\n \n\nthe long smudge of scorched ground, stretching out\n\n \n\nout\n\n \n\naway\n\n \n\nfrom something he has only known\n\n \n\nin so many others’ words,\n\n \n\nthe loss of something\n\n \n\nsomebody else had.","series":{"name":"Black Dog","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/2247491-the-black-dog-meets-the-devil.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/2253738-the-black-dog-tries-to-meditate.json"}}