by Drew Pisarra

It’s easy to look into the soft brown eyes
of a dog and see that a dog has a soul.
But does it follow that a dog has a God?
Studies show that dogs dream,
which somehow feels connected,
as if an animal’s ability to experience
the unconscious world means access
to the spirit world, too.

                                    About that world,
are dogs’ dreams like ours? When asleep,
can they fly — their four paws paddling
through clouds like water? Are there nights
when they relive past lives not just
as puppies, but as different breeds?
Do they have nightmares in which
they finally can understand what that lady
next door is screaming and realize
that she isn’t just some drunken bitch?

People say that dogs, even more
than we, can sense impending death.
That’s closer to God than I want to get.

For the last three years, Drew Pisarra has focused almost exclusively on turning Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s movies into poems. Previous poems from this series have appeared in Atlas and Alice, Poydras Review, Red Fez, St. Petersburg Review, Torrid Literature and Work Literary Magazine. Additionally, he writes almost weekly about Korean films on his blog KoreanGrindhouse.blogspot.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @mistermysterio.