Fernando Valverde is author of several poetry collections, including The Insistence of Harm. He is a distinguished visiting professor at the University of Virginia and lives in Charlottesville.
More By This Poet
Edgar Allan Poe Is Reached at the Baltimore Harbor by the Shadows That Pursue Him
They always followed you.
Disdainful dogs,
they made you lose your balance.
You had to shout
blasphemies into shadows
trying to put out the din of their barking.
Other times
it was advisable to talk and try to calm them,
whispers could be more convincing
and stop them on...