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Pet Poems, First Dog, Blake

No matter, of course, how many times I asked,
The answer came, “No!”  Thus,
At age 9, at the start of summer, I searched
Our not especially well-kept house and yard
For every scrap and plank of wood
I could find, with a borrowing of dad’s 
Hammer, nails, and, then carrying it all
Behind our house, beside the old oak, where I 
Sat on and crawled over the thousand acorns
For the intent hours I spent building
...Yes.  It would do.  The doghouse I constructed.
Then, I sat cross-legged beside it, 
Refusing to move.
Mom said, “She won’t budge. 
You know what she wants.”
Dad surrendered.  “I better take her for one.”

Our city had no shelters in those days, so
We were off to the only pet store where
A litter of black/ochre pups was in the window
Rolling over one another, waiting for me to choose.
Which I did.  The soft, eager boy, curled in my lap
With short hair, long legs and  long tail; with his
Black nose pushing up cold and wet to my hand;
And his triangular ears perking up above
Those fully trusting, black-marble eyes...
Fully a mutt.  Fully mine.
Although dad helped me name him, choosing
The name of the teammate Jimmy Blake from 
The poem “Casey at Bat,” for his little daughter’s
Dog: a classic choice and a connection
To her father’s love of baseball,
Making Blake belong.

He lived til I was 22 and away at college,
But from that day when I was only 9, when he
Became basically my best and only friend,,,
I knew nothing of the taking charge of another
Life, no more than feeding and letting out.
He always tore up the contents of wastebaskets
And I spanked him with anger, I confess,
It hurts to remember it; he’d periodically run under
The bushes to journey off across one
Of the busiest city streets, to be gone two days,
Leaving us tormented til he returned.  Still,
I relished thinking I was teaching him everything
As I stood or sat beside him looking
Out the windows, saying, “What do you see?”
And explaining to him then, every person, every 
Yard, every car near every bird in every tree.

However,as I now know, it is each dog that 
Teaches us, not we who teach them...
My first, my Blake, taught me first by the wanting
Him, that I am strong and stubborn; plus lessons of
How to cherish the holding of the life of another;
And altogether how to be a humane human —
No little thing — along with learning 
A  loving til it hurts.
I wrote for him my first eulogy:
“Asleep at last in 
His unknown grave.
He does not know,
The tears still flow.
Love remains..”

********.       *********.        *********.         *********
(c) sally Young eslinger 1/12/21
Thanks be to God
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