James Moore Poet Narrative

Notes About The Poem

It's All About Grooming

(Pema, spring 2019)

It’s All About Grooming

I’ve had my pug now almost 13 years,
and we both adore each other,
but I clearly have the advantage
because I’ve been grooming him all along.

It’s no contest really.

In 13 years, or about 4700 days, my wife and I 
have lavished every form of love known to man
upon his blessed little soul and walnut wrinkled head,
about 6 times a day I’d say, 
although it could easily be ten times that.
That’s 28,000 to 280,000 moments of positive strokes
compared to the maybe half dozen times 
we’ve been hard on him 
in 13 years.

Talk about conditioning.

It’s no wonder he adores us, 
comes and melts into our embrace.
It’s all about the grooming after all,
and yet, when I put it this way
I think maybe he’s been grooming us more,
much more.

Maybe it’s like this with others that I love, 
my wife, and child and to some extent friends.
I’d like to think so, but I’m not convinced.

Something about grooming dogs seems just fine 
while, with humans, not so much.
That’s the problem with being human,
we don’t handle having other humans
lavish praise on us so well, at least after the infant stage.

And yet we have no problem 
receiving it from 
or giving it to 
dogs their whole lives.

Whoever said life was fair…

(10/30/23)

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