In The Park
In the park
in New York
I saw a little white dog
with three legs
whose owner walked too fast
so the little dog
kept sitting down to rest
but the owner wouldn’t stop
and the dog hopped
the best he could
and I saw a handsome young man
with a graying beard
whom I had seen before
wheel into the park in his chair
who had lost his leg
and unlike the dog
had only one left
and I was struck
with a sorrow so deep
I left the park
on my strong legs.
Iris Litt is the author of two books of poetry: What I Wanted to Say and Word Love. She has had poems in many literary magazines including ONTHEBUS, Confrontation, Hiram Poetry Review, The New Renaissance, Poetry Now, Central Park, Icarus, The Rambunctious Review, Pearl, The Ledge, Earth’s Daughters, Scholastic, Atlantic Monthly (special college edition) and many others. She has won many awards, most recently two Honorable Mentions from Writer’s Digest for short stories and second prize in The Rambunctious Review’s short story contest. She teaches writing workshops in Woodstock, NY and has taught creative writing at SUNY/Ulster, Bard College, Arts Society of Kingston, Writers in the Mountains, Educational Alliance, New York Public Library and many other venues in New York City and the Hudson Valley. She lives in Woodstock and in New York City’s Greenwich Village.