Ethel

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Ethel

Ethel

The Trouble With Being Born

by
Howie Good
Howie Good, Ph.D., a journalism professor at SUNY New Paltz, is the winner of the 2019 Grey Book Press Chapbook Competition for *What It Is and How to Use It*, the 2017 Lorien Poetry Prize from Thoughtcrime Press for *The Loser’s Guide to Street Fighting*, and the 2015 Press Americana Prize for Poetry for *Dangerous Acts Starring Unstable Elements*. His poetry collection, Gunmetal Sky, will be published in 2021 by Thirty West Publishing House. He co-edits the journals UnLost and Unbroken.
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from The Trouble With Being Born

Flash Bang Boom

With the encouragement of family and friends, I adopted a
retired bomb-sniffing dog. I called him “Flash” – after the
flashing lights of a migraine, I would joke to anyone who
asked. One day he discovered under the couch the severed
head of a doll I didn’t even know I had. Next the piano
stopped making sounds when I sat down to play it. Then the
tree outside my window appeared suspended like an astronaut
in space. Now I often catch the dog lying on the couch
studying me with cold, squinty eyes as if calculating exactly
how much a person can bear.