What we have once enjoyed deeply we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us. – Helen Keller
A buddy sent me a note of condolence.
“When my life turns to shit, I usually make a sandwich.”
You have to understand, for me,
it was like living with your own reincarnation.
Awoke before dawn to silence.
You been sleeping in the same room
with a hard-snoring, six-foot tall, one-hundred-and-eighty-five pound hairy male beast
for ten years,
would you miss him if he suddenly disappeared?
C’mon, ladies and bear-loving gays, be honest.
I don’t have an alarm clock, I had him.
I don’t have a security system, I had him.
You had to get by him to get to me.
No door bell, and you know why.
Didn’t even bother locking his kennel that last week.
When I went for my walk. No need.
This morning, I didn’t turn on his fan.
Vacuumed when I got home.
He had the brains of sagacious Snoopy, but the personal hygiene habits of Pigpen.
Out west, Ovcharkas are basically farm animals, guarding herds and flocks, outdoors.
His smell, his big doggy odor rose from his floor-to-floor carpeting.
Seriously, floor should’ve be shit-canned years ago,
but he needed the magic carpet to get up.
Dig in those great claws and push himself to his feet.
I have already found a couple of new canine companions.
Been shopping for months.
Little Retired Blonde says we’re getting new floors first.
Whomever shows up next, better be able to navigate hardwood.
Remember when grown stepdaughter met Hagrid.
She held his head and said,
“There’s somebody in there.”
Put on a twenty-five-year-old tee-shirt.
WILD DOG. NO WHINING.
A particularly favorite pair of socks, a retriever riding a bicycle.
Just had an epiphany –
Can’t blame him for my worst farts.
Made a beer run, drove her car.
My car won’t start.
Won’t start if it sits more than a day or two.
Car been fucking with me for more than a year now,
but love or no love, I gotta cut the bastard loose.
Imagine you are an old cowboy.
The quickest gun around with the swiftest steed.
Gives a man a modest feeling of superiority.
Suddenly you find yourself on foot and armed only with your heart.
I am no philosopher if I can’t tell my own self
celebrate the luck of ever having that dog or that car.
I dance better than I walk
but I feel this is not when I should slow.
There is only this moment.
The time is now.
If it’s the last thing you do,
the old dog said,
groove.
