SurVision Magazine

American Dogs


The wiener on muscular
legs, straining at your
leash, stops to give birth

by the metro at Jiřího z
Poděbrad. A crocodile
of children on a trip,

morphs into a scrum
that eats the pups then
eats the afterbirth. You

let go of your empty dog. 
Then you walk the mosaic-
panelled stairway to the trains,

which still run on time
through the dalek-dimpled
tubes. Mustek waits

a few stops along and out
on Wenceslas, you meet your
tall Angeleno woman. Half

an hour later you lie together
in the flat on Dykova, while
in the other room, Krappova,

your German landlady, snores
like a file as she dreams of
bygone springtime. Beside her

stands a drained bottle
of lemon vodka and a tray
of extinguished Petras.

Her doberman is dead on
a dunghill somewhere,
its skull split. You kiss

your lover's eyes then,
scissoring, together you
dream the new breed.




Patrick Chapman is the author of seven poetry collections and three books of fiction, as well as various works in film, television and audio. His most recent releases are a poetry collection, Slow Clocks of Decay (Salmon, 2016); an audio play, Dan Dare: Operation Saturn (B7/Big Finish, 2017); and a novel, So Long, Napoleon Solo (BlazeVOX, 2017). He edits The Pickled Body magazine (with Dimitra Xidous). He lives in Ireland.