Deep Time and Domestication in Vahni (Anthony Ezekiel) Capildeo’s ‘Dog or Wolf’

Abstract

In this short article, I read Vahni (Anthony Ezekiel) Capildeo’s lyric poem ‘Dog or Wolf’ as an illustration of how a poem can encompass the deep time of co-evolution and speciation (the process whereby species diverge). According to Jonathan Culler, there is a “special now” of lyric poetry: we encounter any poem in a perpetual present, but one with an open temporal horizon. Drawing on Deborah Bird Rose’s concept of ethical time, I suggest that the “gentle howling” of Capildeo’s ambiguous canid, which echoes Rose’s suggestion that other species call us into being, shows how poetry can also be a means of marking very deep time.