A Jeep In Summer

Even Though I Don't Believe in Reincarnation

They gave me a fine burial down
by the stream under a shade tree. That was the
end of my being a dog. Sometimes I miss it so
I sit by the window and cry. I live in a high-rise
that looks out at a bunch of other high-rises.
At my job I work in a cubicle and barely speak
to anyone all day. This is my reward for being
a good dog. The human wolves don't even see me.
They fear me not.

James Tate was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1943. He is the author of Memoir of the Hawk (2001); Shroud of the Gnome (1997); Worshipful Company of Fletchers (1994), which won the National Book Award; Selected Poems (1991), which won the Pulitzer Prize and the William Carlos Williams Award for Poetry; Distance from Loved Ones (1990); Reckoner (1986); Constant Defender (1983); Riven Doggeries (1979); Viper Jazz (1976); Absences (1972); Hints to Pilgrims (1971); The Oblivion Ha-Ha (1970); and The Lost Pilot (1967), which was selected by Dudley Fitts for the Yale Series of Younger Poets. He is also the author of three books of prose, including a collection of stories, Dreams of a Robot Dancing Bee, and the editor of The Best American Poetry 1997. His many honors include the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets. He teaches at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

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