A review by toefurky
Afterglow (a Dog Memoir) by Eileen Myles

emotional hopeful reflective

4.5

“Okay you can open your eyes. The pitbull is watching the skyline. She’s whispering inside my head. She’s singing to me. One tree, that’s all you need. Shaped like broccoli or cauliflower some rainy day. I’m glad I woke. Maybe I’ll make some coffee. She keeps whispering. One tree. That’s all you need. Start a whole civilization that way. One little piece grows it all. Feel the bump. And her paw holds my finger to the weave. I don’t want to wake up. That’s it, she says. Every part grows from every other part. Feel it. Every tiny leaf on the tree is singing. Can you hear it. Yes. Alright now.”

“Humans were biped dogs. Are we one? I think so. In that tapestry you knew what I meant. It was the crowded room of the cave. The rain comes down and you go outside because you feel it. This is what it is to be a dog. Weather and feeling and knowing. That’s why you let us remain. you love how we walk around smelling things. How we’re always hungry. You love how a dog picks a place on the rug and scratches and circles around and sits down and adjusts. ‘Now I’m in the room.’ And now I look up, and you laugh, why? Because of your deliberate apartness from yourself, and I always bring you back. Do you see what I mean? You wait, and then you sniff. That yellowish tree down there by the lake is waving, you think its not communicating? Not as much as, say, that door down the hall? Slam. Not as much as the rooms?”