"Dog" A poem review

The poem "Dog" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti is certainly an interesting poem to me. The setting of the concrete imagery is that of downtown San Francisco, and I'm not sure that the dog in question is supposed to only represent a canine. Evidence that supports it is just a dog is the briefness of the structure of the poem. It points to simple-mindedness to me, as I think a dog would think. They bark and yap very quickly. Also, the attention is refocusing on everything the dog passes, pointing to acute sense like smell and hearing. Finally, the indentation towards the end reminds me of the imagery of a dog tilting it's head to think or watch something observantly.

On the other hand, this may not be a dog we're following at all. Dog could be an alliteration for a scruffy, rough person, or even the shoes on his feet since dogs used to refer to either men or their shoes depending on the context. This kind of a person would definitely be interested in food, get around town a bit, be worried about cops roughing them up for no reason, and have something to say about political and social issues as this dog did. Who hasn't been stopped by a homeless crazy person and gotten an earful about at least the Good Lord or some current social craze? This dog seems to think an awful lot about Congressman Doyle and democracy. Many street walkers also tend to have a certain way of telling you things when they "got dey own two cents ta tell ya 'bout how it ought to be," placing emphasis on every fourth word and shaking their finger at you, just as the last few lines seem to stop after a few words to emphasize each line, the previous line, and the line ahead.