The Colossus Sleeps

Barley, a dog, snoozes on the futon as she is photographed from a low angle.

It consistently amuses me to view Barley from this type of angle, because it really gives the sense that her body is an expansive landscape, stretching into the distance. When she’s walking around, she’s easily understood as a compact, stocky agent in the world, but when she sprawls like this, it’s much easier to imagine how the broad expanse of her flank could seem like an entire world to, say, an errant flea. A world, admittedly, that would be poisoned from that flea’s perspective, thanks to her monthly dose of anti-parasitic meds.