THE WAY I BECAME A DOG
Vladimir Mayakovsky


Wow ,this is absolutely impossible
I'll be anger bitten all over soon
I'm angry, but not like you with your scowl;
like a dog at the face of the bare-browed moon
at all and every I'd howl

Nerves, perhaps..
I'll go
take a scroll
But in the street, too, no one can sooth me.
Good evening ! passing me ,shouts a woman.
An acquaintance..
got to say something;
I want to,
but can't , like a human.
it's simply disgraceful
Am I sleeping or what?
i feel myself over;
The same as before
The face I've been used to
so why all this fuss?
Then I touch my lip-
from beneath it, lor'
a tusk!

hurry ! I cover my face as if sneezing
and dash, double quick, on my homeward trail
taking care to avoid police men
But suddenly deafening:
"Constable!
A Tail !"

I stretch out a hand and freeze, stock-still
Tusks are nothing compared to this
I hadn't noticed it, running;
from under my jacket
a huge tail-whisk!-
trails behind me,
enormous ,canine.

what now?
one yelled, then the crowd expanding
a second came, a third and fourth
An old gran got crushed
As she crossed herself, on the sidewalk standing,
on something about the devil holding forth

and when, sticking broom-like whiskers into my face,
the mob raged around me, huge by now
I stood down on all fours
disgrace or no disgrace-
began to bark
bow-grr-bow-wow-wow!