Ron Carlson

Max Who Caught a Car

When I found out that one of my years was seven of theirs, I started biting absolutely everything.

—Max Carlson

I’m now a legend underneath this porch
where old age has me tethered in the yard,
and every young pup carries his own torch
to me, the dog that caught a ’60 Ford.

The story’s known from L.A. to New York,
how I dragged the Fairlane back onto the grass
and chewed it up like so much tender pork.
It took me years to swallow all that glass.

And still these young dogs come to see if I
can offer any help with their technique;
they scratch and piss and bark into the sky,
macho doggy stardom what they seek.

I smile at their bravado, all that toil,
and then I sleep, as always, drooling oil.

—Max Carlson, Australian shepherd, b. January 1, 1983