The APBT (by Mitch Sisskind)

Could anything be more self-sabotaging to a poetry career than 
writing about pit bull fanatics -- and not like Harvard Man George 
Plimpton goes slumming among the pit bull fanatics but from inside
the heads of the pit bull fanatics themselves? Oh God, what is wrong 
with me! 

Ever since I first read the work of the pit bull fanatics in about 1985 
the pit bull fanatics' vernacular has had hold of me like the jaws of 
a hard-biting pit bull! I instantly morph into the identitty of a pit 
bull fanatic whenver I want to, or what is worse when I don't want to!

But for writers the most important thing is to fill up the pages and 
they will write anti-Semitism like Fyodor Dostoevsky or a 39 foot 
long scroll of tortures like Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis 
de Sade, or Emily Dickenson in her diabolical Little Bo Peep 
mode of "My wars are all laid up in books, I have one battle more" 
or Kenneth Grahame whose Mr. Toad expresses not only the 
unpredictablity and tenacity of fetishistic sexuality but also the 
tragic comedy of the artist who cannot choose his dreams but 
rather is chosen by them. 

At the end of his life James Thurber wept that his satires 
had hurt many -- but it was not given to him to write Much Ado 
About Nothing nor could now write King Lear. But he at least 
wanted to write King Lear and this was taken into consideration
when he stood before the Heavenly Tribunal.    

Here is a little dog man poem. And below you can see a video 
where one of the great dog men reminisces and philosophizes. 

The APBT

The dog game has been here since caveman days!
Imagine two cavemen, each the owner of a dog, 
Betting their dinosaurs on which dog will win 
The world's first dog match! Also, Abe Lincoln 
Was the referee at dog matches and for this 
He became known as Honest Abe Lincoln.

Jack Dempsey owned a pit dog and if you saw
Little Rascals on YouTube have you noticed
How their dog named Petey was a pit dog? 
But the Petey dog was not an APBT because 
The APBT did not exist yet, the APBT had not  
Come into being yet at the time of Little Rascals.

Hell, at the time of Little Rascals the APBT
Was only a gleam in Winchell Graff's eye!
Grandpa Munster, Darlene, Field Mouse,
For those dogs and others like them we have
To thank Winchell Graff because he bred 
The first American Pit Bull Terrier game dogs!