Mnemosyne
Last night we fell into an argument
over whether you were with me
when my favorite of all our dogs—
injected with a relaxant in my presence,
loved through a veil of tears
for a few terminal minutes—was gathered
in the arms of our vet, to breathe
her last few breaths off-stage.
I’d said, out of the blue
haze of regrets, that I wished
I’d insisted on being with our dog
till the very end, carrying my distress
over putting her down—though she was
sleepless, unhinged, incontinent—
into that final room, instead of acquiescing
to the doctor’s—more convenient?—curtain.
You said you thought you were there,
with me, when our dog went limp
and couldn’t lift her head!
But I knew you weren’t! And knew
there wasn’t any other canine demise
you could have misremembered for this one.
My narrative was clutched in my heart—
how you dropped me at the animal hospital,
choosing not to come in, how I emerged
20 minutes later, the neck of my t-shirt drenched…
As if you hadn’t already begun to sip
the waters of Lethe through no fault
of your own, as if we both weren’t edging
ever closer to Oblivion, I argued with you,
holding onto my story in my fist—
my certainty against your certainty.
As if we could drink from the pool
of Mnemosyne instead of Lethe, could prevent
our atoms from transmigrating
endlessly into new beings. As if we could
find each other throughout eternity—the joyful way
neglected Argos, flea-infested, lying on
the dung heap, recognized rag-clad Odysseus
after twenty years, and wagged his tail—
just for a moment—before Death overtook him.
© Judy Kronenfeld
Judy Kronenfeld’s full-length books of poetry include Groaning and Singing (FutureCycle, 2022), Bird Flying through the Banquet (FutureCycle, 2017), and Shimmer (WordTech, 2012). Her poems have appeared in such journals as Cider Press Review, Gyroscope Review, MacQueen’s Quinterly, New Ohio Review, Rattle, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and Verdad. Her memoir-in-essays, Apartness, is forthcoming from Inlandia Books in 2024/2025. Her eighth collection, a chapbook of poems, If Only There Were Stations of the Air, will be published by Sheila-Na-Gig Editions in early 2024, and her ninth, another chapbook, Oh Memory, You Unlocked Cabinet of Amazements!, by Bamboo Dart Press in June, 2024.
The Loch Raven Review 