– After Bernard DeVille’s “My Side of the Mountain”

O brother, my brother.  Sometimes
we must let sleeping dogs lie.  If you must
unearth that which has gone before,
let me offer you that which you cannot

uncover—a voice for the other
side; allow me, if you will, to speak

for the dead and gone—without ruffling
any but my own, dark feathers—

and so doing, allow what sleeps
to sleep, forevermore, without

the annoyance of dogs
returning to their folly.