Running with Rex

Running with Rex I rowed a boat into a lake, to clear my head from feelling addled. I forgot my big brown dog Rex, but after me he paddled. A loyal shadow in the water, but my eyes just looked ahead Rex's breath was giving out, but his spirit had not fled. Luckily, father launched a boat from the beach. Like a hero in a story, his strong arms did reach. Rex scrambled into his boat, a dripping mess. Dad gave Rex a hug, I gave Rex a caress. Later years Rex would run with me I thought he was lucky, I thought he was free. Better off than being inside a house all day like many sad pets across the USA. We ran with the track team of Jackson High As he ran, he wheezed, I never asked why. We ran all alone, up the mountain of Bear. We ran like a two-man pack, in the clear dry air. One hot summer day, he collapsed in the sun. Looked so bad, fear gripped me, I felt my heart run. I doused him with water, inside and out. Like a desperate rain, trying to end a drought. They tell me now that this was my final blow. The wrong thing to do, but of course I didn't know. I drove to the vet too fast, a risk to drivers on the way. The sky seemed black, though it was a bright summer day. The vet took one look and told me Rex was dead. No more memories of me, eternal nothingness instead. I had run Rex to death for a misguided ideal. The rest of my life, this wound will not heal. I had to tell my dad, and my brothers too. Dad was bitter, but there was nothing left to do. Wasn't that I was cruel, or that I'm not nice Life's lessons hurt the most when others pay the price. I tried to learn life's rules, to ask what can go wrong. To pour cold water on manic ideals, to be wise and strong. But many times, in later years, a victim took the fall. If you can't think ahead, you become a human wrecking ball.