Our beloved dogs were taken from us,
by a speeding driver who did not see
them crossing the road.
He hit them both and threw them aside,
where they landed side by side.
Their last breaths were
taken as they lay close,
the way they always did.
My daughter found them lying there
and her screams were unbearable for the police officer to share.
Her pain was so deep and intense to see,
he tried to calm her, hold her back, let them be.
Carrying them gently they made the trek,
to place them softly upon our deck.
Kneeling down she still could not accept
the loss of our wonderful pets.
Crying ourselves to sleep this night,
only to awaken to hear my daughter's dream.
The dream that Elvis and Angel had come back,
happily wagging their tails in delight.
Consumed by the dream she rushed outside to see
if she could see Elvis and Angel running free.
She had to accept this could not be,
the painful sobs were wrenching to see
for she knows now this can never be.
I dream that tonight I am a raccoon
And it is here in this body that I store the notion
That my sadness will last forever,
In the treasury of unclaimed awareness,
Where pits of the peaches could never re-sprout...
I dig deep into the indent of a Denver ravine,
Gnaw knee-high into the hollow ridges of hominids and their homelands,
Belly-wade in bottomless mud waters west of wherever they don’t go, though
Lurid in my languor now, I laminate my slick turf onto Continental limestone slabs
And, then, all-at-once, at noon, just like that,
I call it a day.
A tired little raccoon
Can’t bear without a rest
Through the midday...
I arise as the coon falls under.
Reclaiming Human Sorrow, my Wrong-Headed Brother,
Waxing thunderously, now, in the mind’s cluttered cage
In this day of coffee and chit-chat and left-turns,
I’ll dream tonight I am a raccoon.
So that we may both get out and roam.