Two Poems
Ethan McGuire

My Dearest Vesper

. . . tonight, I’ve just come in

From walking our old, eager chocolate Lab.

You’re going to like her. Daisy is her name,

And I am certain she will like you too,

And stand guard over you, in her own way—

That funny, frantic, careful, loving way

A loyal family dog is bound to have,

Just like my own Lab, Bear, had, growing up.

Before I turned her back toward the house,

I stopped to look toward the rising moon.

It moved like cream in milk across the sky;

A haze of clouds approached its shadowed face.

An approaching, Autumn breeze was blowing too.

It’s Pensacola, so the air was warm

And humid, sticky with that lingering heat

Which never leaves this place, except in winter.

But the changing breeze reminded me of Fall,

Nearly here, and winter, almost cold,

And then new life in spring, when you are due.

- - -

Oh, Danny, Danny Boy

Scratching his shepherd dog,

Danny Boy loved to boast

Of his skill with a gun

And how he would protect

His home and those inside it

Against any intruder,

Of how he would gun down

Any breaker and enterer,

Until one fateful night

When he’d had much too much

To drink—a bit too much—

A robber broke the locks

To Danny’s house and slammed

The door and rushed inside,

Holding a bat with bat weights,

Hoping no one was home,

But prepared in case there were,

Though not prepared enough

for an American home.

Then, Danny-the-Great-Boaster,

Danny-I-Have-a-Gun-

For-Each-and-Every-Room,

Danny-Protect-the-Castle-

By-Death-and-I’ll-Be-Glad

—Yes, that same Danny—froze

At the sight of that Long-Expected-

Thief with ill intent.

Danny Boy didn’t grab

A gun—he didn’t pull

A pistol, didn’t palm

A Glock; he didn’t draw

A Ruger, didn’t rack

A 12 Gauge—no, Danny soiled

His pants, and felt his mind

A haze, and then passed out,

And fell down to the floor;

All while his shepherd snarled,

All while his shepherd growled,

And chased the crook away—

Grabbing the scruffy seat

Of that old burglar’s pants,

Bringing it back as a trophy

To lay at Danny’s feet.

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Ethan’s notes: “‘My Dearest Vesper’ is a blank verse lyric I wrote to my daughter a few months before she was born. ‘Oh, Danny, Danny Boy’ is a comic little thing in three beat lines lampooning a kind of guy all of us, at least over here in America, know, though at least this character has enough sense to love a good dog.”

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Ethan McGuire is a writer and computer scientist whose essays, poems, short stories, and translations have appeared in Blue Unicorn, The Dispatch, Emerald Coast Review, New Verse News, VoegelinView, and other publications. He is an editor at Tar River Poetry, Literary Matters, and New Verse Review and the author of Songs for Christmas and Apocalypse Dance. Ethan lives with his wife and children in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

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Two Poems Ethan McGuire

Two Poems
Ethan McGuire