Poems

March 1998

Airedales

by David Slavitt

Those who did it are dead now. And what they did,
they were trained to do and had no choice, no freedom.
Still, when I read in some book review that the camps’
guard dogs were “Alsatians, Airedales, and Doberman
pinschers” I can’t help blaming the dogs of these breeds,
even though they have no idea what breeds they are.

  

Alsatians? Of course. And Dobermans? They are weapons
that sometimes wag their tails. But Airedales?
                                                                            &nbs ...

David Slavitt


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This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 16 March 1998, on page 35

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