Dog, Destroyed, 22nd May 1998

Friend,
Whose pallid teeth
tried to tug me into dawn, weekend battles...
I am but a man,
Yet there you are
Heaving heavy,
An open mouth in quiet, shellshocked terror.

Experimental pet!
Perhaps the years of new babies and homes
From Ford to Mercedes
Have ignorently decayed you,
My ripe, frayed tramp.

Now you lie gently
In this shades place,
A shade among shades.
And I pause in the doorway
Finding that even your scent
Could not catch your
furious running to nowhere.