The Dirigible Balloon
Poetry for Children

The Arguments of Dogs

I love the arguments of dogs.

The dog that gives a deep-throated warning -
Don’t come too near.

The pin you down and bark in your face dog.

The one that glares aggressively:
Who are you looking at pal?

The plaintive-
Not me surely, you wouldn’t do that to me.

The yippety, yippety yappers.
The wuffers and bluffers

The argy-bargy labradoodles
running rings around each other.

The half-bark and then run dog,
astonished at what she’s done.

The bad tempers on four legs
terriers.

And best of all
the cautious barkers
from behind the legs of strollers.
I would if I could, but thankfully
I’m safely tied to my human.

So there!

About the Writer


Brian Moses

Brian is an English poet who writes mainly for children. He has over 200 published works and has given over 3000 performances of his poetry and percussion show. His poetry books and anthologies for Macmillan have sold in excess of 1 million copies. He was asked by CBBC to write a poem for the Queen's 80th birthday and was invited by Prince Charles to speak at Prince’s Summer School for teachers at Cambridge University in 2007. Brian is Co-director of the Able Writers’ Scheme (now called the AIM High Writers' Scheme) which he founded in 2002. Brian can be contacted at brianmoses.co.uk