Eleanor Lerman

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book. Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Roxane Gay, and many others. Eleanor Lerman’s collection King the Wonder Dog is filled with moving stories of loneliness and the power of animals to assuage our pain.

When Anders wakes up in the morning, the moon is still in the sky. Today, it’s in the right-hand corner of the window frame; in two or three days’ time it will be gone, on its way to continue its endless travels around the blue globe that holds it captive. Then it will be back, a slice at a time, until it shows up in his window again, round as a plate, bright and beaming.

Today I will praise. I will praise the sun For showering its light On this darkened vessel. I will praise its shine. Praise the way it wraps My skin in ultraviolet ultimatums Demanding to be seen. I will lift my hands in adoration Of how something so bright Could be so heavy. I will praise the ground That did not make feast of these bones. Praise the casket That did not become a shelter for flesh. Praise the bullets That called in sick to work. Praise the trigger That went on vacation.