the pug presentsa puffed-up chesta riffling of faint whiskersHerc is drunkfills a plaid button shirt with bellysquats down in straining jeans and leansforward on creaking toesof stitched cowboy bootsscuffed up grey above the heels’ black shinethe pug ignoresthe chicken boneproffered in Herc’s hulking waywaggling the scrap aroundlike a toothpick between forefinger and thumbthinking how labor never endshe’ll be running around in his club cabtill they plant his sturdy limbsor burn him up and toss him in the windthe pug revealssome tiny teetha chest-borne bubbling growl“oh, come on pup”Herc heaves his mighty self upshakes the trinket of bird bone in a pug-sized fiststamps designer boots, digs in dirt a tipputs a pre-rolled smoke to lipburns with itthe pug barks oncea yip deep-double echoeddown drops the walking mountaincrumbles spilled fromcrinkled bootsand cease____Daniel A. Nicholls can be found declaiming poets and poetry on Twitter (@nomopoetry) and Tumblr (nomopoetry.tumblr.com). He has poems online at the Honest Ulsterman, Compose Journal, Specter Magazine, and Halfway Down the Stairs. From 2010 until 2012, he was Writer in Residence at The Starving Artist in Keene, NH. He now resides in Arizona.