A Dog's Life

It is just a dog, a common cur The scabs, the sore upon the eye. O the rattled temper And the garbage bins tottering Under the mischief of its paws. It is just a dog, a common cur And more method to it madness Than man's dumb logic can ressurect. Life has chewed on its pedigree Like leather. It searches, but never eats. Yet ribs stick out Like bones suck white against the cruel teeth. He marks each bin with seminal promptness As if weaving from his heart some memory Some hope to find again the heated ***** Among the refuse and waste of man's discard But the rescue mission tears him hard He finds no trail in the empty sniffs, Nothing recognizable Like the joy of her sullen bark Teasing him to mark the turf anew. He use to bark at the moon For always the shadow on the rock of light Reminded his loneliness Of the dog catchers coming. The firs time they came The truck moving like a hearse at edge of day His father went without farewell. The man wore collar and leash Symbols tyrranical to freedom. His mother wore none, Her penury almost left her naked, Howled at by wind, spat at by rain She kept her freedom close to her vein. The dog catchers came again And his misery is not abated yet; The pound swallowed up his son And mother in almost one breath. The ***** was analgesic afterwards For pain that dogged a dog. With her the future had neither chiarscurro Nor sulking shadows for schoolboys stones She was tied to the past Yesterday's joys is tomorrow's anesthetics Though he had only known today, Barren now like an empty house And dreams withering Shrivelled raisins of hope Hard as day against the palate. This dog has no more gate To wait. Mongrels are not prized. Perhaps the flies got her, He heard them singing in his ears Wingless words. He bit on time Took a good dose of it, Anesthetics or analgesics, The difference is irrelevant now. Pedigree is nothing without honour, Love is poison without trust, A dog's heart Turns to its master's whip like a child.