Peter Wild was an American Poet who taught at UC San Diego for many years. I had the good fortune of publishing two of Peter's early poetry chapbooks. This poem is based on an exercise he used in his writing class. The first and the last lines are constrained. I further constrained the line length and number of lines. Here is what happened.
For centuries lovers have looked at the stars
The stars that look over the world when asleep
The world made up of dreamers, risk takers, mothers fathers and children with running feet
These mischievous kids who cause trouble wherever they go
Full of energy and weapons like firecrackers that blow up
What if we blow up the dog? They say
And BOOM! One leg is blown away
And the mother cries
And the father hurls
But they love their children
Children who are part of the world
Made up of dreamer, risk takers, mothers, fathers, and children with running feet
The ones that look at the stars
What do we look for when we stare at the stars, at the night, dark but full of star light
We want love and protection from those that surround us
Beep beep who’s that man in the beer truck outside our house?
Someone call the dreamers, the risk takers, the mother, the father, to save the children with running feet
Run and hide
Someone help these mischievous kids
And the three-legged dog chased the beer truck out of town
...Angelica Flores
For centuries lovers have looked to the stars
Their indefinite love binding their hearts
This cocoon embraces their bodies
Reality is merely utopianism
They sit in a restaurant booth
The window next to the woman, tainted by soiled handprints and aging dust
slowly peels off with the falling water droplets.
The other side is dark, inhumane, odd
and the three-legged dog chased the beer truck out of town
...Christina Zuniga
Destiny
For centuries lovers have looked to the stars
Hoping to decipher the ways of the fates.
One such couplet of lovers, staring,
Found much bewilderment when pondering the cosmos.
What they saw was not a story
Of love, nor of hate nor of jealousy,
But peculiarly it was a story of a woeful dog!
This dog, just a simple creature of the earth,
Was a cripple for it had only three legs.
For hours and hours, the lovers watched.
They gleamed with much mirth and wonder,
The life of this animal, as unfortunate and curious as it was.
They saw not only its current bestial life,
But the one beyond. The one it was destined to live.
The life it would eventually lead
Would only be possible if it ceased its chase.
For the lovers had seen that it would meet a tragic end
If it persisted in its ways.
With great sadness in their eyes, they saw that end
And the three-legged dog chased the beer truck out of town…
...Laura O’Hagan
Garry and the Bar
For centuries lovers have looked to the stars,
Usually this happens when they come back from the bars.
At the bars is where they shed their tears and moan,
And ask their love issue questions in a serious tone.
Then one day, to the bar, came an odd man,
With him he brought a dented pan.
He drove a beer truck and announced his named to be Garry,
He was too ghastly to be called a bad apple, more like a black cherry.
He began to order drinks, one after another,
When asked he said the bill would be paid by his brother.
With time the owner got worried and started to fear,
He hoped Garry was dreaming of free beer.
The owner finally demanded some money,
That’s when Garry thought he’d be a little funny.
Garry grabbed his dented pan and aimed at the owner,
He thought the owner was frightened because he ran to the corner.
But the owner whistled and out came a three-legged dog,
Even with only three legs he was bigger than a hog.
Scared Garry jumped into his truck with a frown,
And the three-legged dog chased the beer truck out of town.
...Naila Khan
For centuries lovers have looked to the stars
Two lovers of equal thought, two lovers at the park
They sit in single silence, no dead bodies in between
No violence, no hate, just love
They stare at each other thinking,
Their gazes blank with understanding
Their bodies close and the grass prickly
Between their warm intertwined hands
The wind emanating from the trees, the only sound
It shakes the passive leaves around
Then the crickets sing along in harmony
And a lonely owl hoots in the darkness
Faded into the city landscape background
These beautiful nature sounds constricted in the park
Scream out to New York “be quiet!
For these two lovers in Central Park”
But inevitable it is when a pub is nearby
And the beer truck roars along to the ally close by
A dog steps out into the car light
And the lovers’ paradise moment is lost
for the dog starts barking as the truck backs up
and the noise slowly elevates
when the three-legged dog chases the beer truck out of town.
...Liz Licea
For centuries lovers have looked to the stars
to learn how to love, care, act, think, and
process all that they had been blessed to
experience while lying in the comfort of
each other’s souls. The silence was
captivating, with so much to teach each
other about what life would unfold for them
in later years. Ah, to be young and in love;
to still yearn to be blindly carried away by
Prince Charming and his gallant steed to a
world you never fathomed could exist when
raised in this complacent society of ours.
To want to settle down in a long forgotten Eden
and befriend fantastical creatures in
hidden passageways where Latin and Algonquin
are the only acceptable languages to be spoken
in everyday conversation. To want to
save Humpty Dumpty six times a day
from his ever so eminent fall, to forget the concept
of self completely in a labyrinth of fantasies
where salamanders serenade Adolf Hitler
every morning to quiet his sociopathic,
Anti-Semitic yearnings for the downfall of mankind
And three legged dogs chase beer trucks out of town.
...Alyssa Capili
For centuries lovers have looked to the stars.
Peering through the long planetary distance
To find that binary pair that hold their names
Or discover a solitary light already at wits end
And put that flamboyant shooting star out of its misery.
For decades the unrequited have looked to the skies.
Admiring the potential reflected in the high clouds,
Searching for comical forms that tease the mind
To play along in the garden of one’s storm
And hide the impending clear weather forecast.
For years the hypnotized have looked to the seas.
Amazed by advancing waves crashing ashore
As the surfs and tides undulates tediously close
Catching only the mist afloat in a suspension
And watch it gravitate away to the lucky moon.
For hours heartbroken I looked to the curb.
Past the empty glass bottom is my home tonight but
Gripping my last mug that has been long out of refills
I beg for charity in the form of an extension to my tab
And the three-legged dog chased the beer truck out of town.
...Jason Tse
For centuries lovers have looked to the stars
Anticipating shooting stars, cuddled in each others arms
Connecting the endless specks. Trying to form pictures of
Cows, birds, whales, the dipper, an ice cream cone.
Not realizing that while they’re looking at the unknowing
The well-known is all around them living a life of its own.
At a distance a cat was running from a three-legged stray dog
A truck driver abruptly presses on the brakes because he didn’t see the red light
For he was trying to finish a half eaten burger from Ahn’s Burgers.
The girl had forgotten to turn off the stove at home,
Her mother came home witnessing the house almost burnt to the ground
She’s furiously calling the innocent adolescence,
But as we suspected, she had turned off her phone.
She’s gonna hear it when she gets home.
The boy’s father is waiting at home to tell him that his mother
Is in the hospital, anticipating death at any moment.
The driver finished his burger at the light even after it turned green,
The cat escaped through the fence,
And the three-legged dog chased the beer truck out of town.
...Julia Le
For centuries lovers have looked to the stars.
Looking for inspiration? More so comfort.
Wide- eyed, Innocent, Naive, Hopeful, Cliche
Alert, young, wild, and potential gazes
Eyes serving as peepholes, peeking into the heart shaped box.
An empty box filled with images of hopes, dreams
Spontaneous plans and reckless forms of security
of what will come, what could be, what should
Yet, the time has passed and could be hasn’t
The aspirations end in weak and futile attempts
The stars that once held such magic
have proven themselves what they are
an array of large irreversible clumps of plasma
floating aimlessly, luminously, manipulatively
Young lovers that once were now stare
Looking for comfort? More so inspiration.
calm, experienced, secure, and above all, appreciative.
Inevitable reality sinks. Eyes now look at what is real
Reality that is eye-level, attainable
And the three-legged dog chased the beer truck out of town
...Gabrielle Arroyo
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