poem death is a dog, food poem By Chicago Poet Janet Kuypers

[the Writing of Kuypers] [JanetKuypers.com] [Bio] [Poems] [Prose]

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live at 6/11 in Chicago 06/11/02

3:32, 7/11 talk & poem, from the show 6/11 06/11/02

from the Internet Archive

Listen to the CD recording for the 06/11/02 performance art show 6/11

Listen to The DMJ Art Connection,
from The DMJ Art Connection Disc 1

Listen to this radio recording
from WZRD Radio (in a 2 CD set)

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from the poetry audio CDetc.
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The poems (I’m Not Sick, But I’m Not Well and Death is a Dog, 4:11) at the Jesse Oaks Lake County Politically UNcorrect poetry open mike on 05/24/07

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(2:18) at Jesse Oaks 07/19/07

Listen: (2:24)
to this recording from Fusion

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from Chaotic Elements
(a 2 CD set)...Or order the entire CD set from iTunes or Napster

CD: CD:

Listen (2:25) (mixed 01/12/09)
to this poetry, combined with music
from the HA!Man of South Africa
creating “from Chicago the South Africa”

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read at at the open mic Poetry Express (at Priya Indian Cuisine) in Berkeley CA 09/14/09

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read at at the open mic Poetry Express (at Priya Indian Cuisine) in Berkeley CA 09/14/09

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11/06/10 from the TV camera in Lake Villa’s Swing State, live in her “Visual Nonsense” show Sexism and other stories

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listen: 1:54, 11/06/10 in Lake Villa at Swing State, in Sexism and other stories

See the full show of Kuypers reading from the TV monitor in the “Sexism and other stories” show, live in Lake Villa’s “Visual Nonsense” 10/20/011/06/10 with this poem at Swing State

See the full show of Kuypers reading in the “Sexism and other stories” show, live in Lake Villa 11/06/10 with this writing at Swing State

Watch the YouTube video
of Kuypers reading this poem at the open mike 2/29/12 at Gallery Cabaret’s the Café Gallery in Chicago (w/ music from the HA!man of South Africa) from the house camera

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of Kuypers reading this poem at the open mike 2/29/12 at Gallery Cabaret’s the Café Gallery in Chicago (w/ music from the HA!man of South Africa) from the Kodak camera

See YouTube video
of Kuypers reading this poem 2/13/13 at the Café Gallery in Chicago (from the Canon camera)

See YouTube video
of Kuypers reading this poem 2/13/13 at the Café Gallery in Chicago (from the Sony camera)

See YouTube video
of Kuypers performng poetry including this poem in a last-minute mini-features @ the open mic 2/13/13 at Gallery Cabaret’s the Café Gallery in Chicago (C)

See YouTube video
of Kuypers performng poetry including this poem in a last-minute mini-features @ the open mic 2/13/13 at Gallery Cabaret’s the Café Gallery in Chicago (S)

See YouTube video
of 4 mini-features @ the open mic 2/13/13 at Gallery Cabaret’s the Café Gallery in Chicago, where Janet Kuypers reads this poem in a “last minute” mini-feature

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading 2 sets of 3 poems each, including the poems Death is a Dog, Everything Was Alive and Dying and Fantastic Car Crash in set 1, and Too Far, the Burning and Under the Sea in set 2, 8/11/15 at Quenchers open mic in Chicago (Canon fs200)

See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading 2 sets of 3 poems each, including the poems Death is a Dog, Everything Was Alive and Dying and Fantastic Car Crash in set 1, and Too Far, the Burning and Under the Sea in set 2, 8/11/15 at Quenchers open mic in Chicago (Canon P.S.)

See YouTube video 6/13/16 of Janet Kuypers reading her 3 poems Death is a Dog, and What I Want to Know and I Dreamt About You Last Night at the Austin open mic Kick Butt Poetry (from a Canon Power Shot camera).

See YouTube video 6/13/16 of Janet Kuypers reading her 3 poems Death is a Dog, and What I Want to Know and I Dreamt About You Last Night at the Austin open mic Kick Butt Poetry (from a Sony camera).

death is a dog
Janet Kuypers
07/08/98
Death is an untrained little bitch
it pees on the carpet and barks through the night
and it’s always begging
for scraps at the table
seeing what it can take from you
when you’ve got your back turned
when you’re not looking
when you want it to heal,
well, it never does
and it never rolls over
and it never plays dead
I know what it takes to die
it’s not an emotional, rash decision
it’s cold
it’s calculated
it’s a numbing void
but one day it suddenly all makes sense
and from that moment on
you either look for it
or it looks for you
Death is an untrained little bitch
and I’ve been begging for it, I tell you
but it doesn’t come when you call
I leave a bowl of water out
and a bowl of dried dog food
and you know, I never see it eating
but when I check the bowl is empty
and I still refill the bowl
and vacuum the dog hair
that sticks to the couch
and spray air freshener
in the living room
because no matter how hard you try
you can never get rid of the smell
Death is an untrained little bitch, I tell you
and what it boils down to is this:
you won’t get along with her
and she won’t get along with you
she’ll claim her territory
under the bed,
eating your slipper,
while you try to sleep
and remind yourself
that there are no monsters
waiting for you
to shut your eyes

Copyright Janet Kuypers.
All rights reserved. No material
may be reprinted without express permission.

The above YouTube video (4:11) is of the two poems (Death Is A Dog and I’m Not Sick, But I’m Not Well) at the Politically UNcorrect poetry open mic at Jesse Oaks in Lake County (north of Chicago) on 05/24/07

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(2:18) at the Jesse Oaks live open mic 07/19/07