Woe and glee explode in me

And never will you forget us;

The missiles you’ll throw and the drives back home

And no god that can contain us;

My bounds and olfaction, my ev’ry good action

Speaks to pleasures you never will have;

My scorn, my skill, and my unthinking will

I should never allow you to have;

A sickly sting will my yelping bring,

Our hurts will be but one;

And when time’s bent along and the costly thorn’s gone

The scarring will better but one.

Oh the things you’ll remember, oh the tears you will spend,

Wishing beyond wishing we could do it again.

Out on a cool night drive, wearing

a black tanktop that lets the wind blow against me

and my new zoo pride beads bracelet on my left wrist.

The passenger windows, front and back,

are rolled down a crack for a friend.

She hops back and forth between the front seat and the back,

smelling out of one window and then the other,

making the PASSENGER AIRBAG OFF light

turn on and off; With each passage

from front to back or back to front,

her athletic, sleek, warm canine body brushes against my shoulder

and the smell of her coat and her breath strongly fills the air.

 

During a part of the drive where the speed limit

on the road is faster, I ease off on the gas, ready

to stop for deer.

 

She stands with her hindpaws planted on the back seat

and her front paws planted on the center console

right beside where my elbow rests, and looks ahead—vigilant—

and her side leans against mine as we slowly prowl.

Slowly waking to

a quiet room

and then rolling

over to find

a dog with

on the bed.

My corpse in all its splendor

I think will not surrender

One more climactic happy noise

Nor one more line on Gaia’s joys