Poem #15 for Poetry Month -- "Long ago I heard footsteps"

[nightdog_barks]

This poem is from the American writer Miriam Bird Greenberg, and is about a call for help on a dark night. One might say it's a tiny, condensed version of a Nightdog story.



Long ago I heard footsteps


Long ago I heard footsteps
come to the door, and a man

knocking. We’ve had an accident

up on the road, can you help
he pled at the unanswered door,

and kept knocking.

He might have been a thief
but soon enough a woman’s howl

lit up the night, and I put a knife
in my belt. Around dawn

I figured their fortunes
might be worth change.


~ Miriam Bird Greenberg
From Poetry, November 2010
Online source here.