Teddy

Master’s Lament

[Dedicated to my sister-in-law
Doris Tomlinson on the occasion
of Teddy’s death]

‘This moment alone’

O you life-bringer,lap-warmer
Lift your head wrubin@nycap.rr.com anticipate touch.
Run sleep rest leap move twist
like a furry kitchen blender wrubin@nycap.rr.com on high speed.

You paint my world.
You join the sky the stars
the moon each wind-tossed plant
Rainbows birthdays graduations
celebrations tragedies
thunderstorms
everyday-ordinary-in-my-space
familiarity …

You flood my minutes
hours years.
The past does not exist
for you.
Only this walk.
This car ride.
This toy to chew.
This scent to investigate.

Your single-minded creature-wisdom
clings to this
trembling-bouncy-wonder-moment
You grab on
hang on’
keep on
right on NOW:
You never let go.

We rode glorious
shared-day rhythms ~
You strode danced
scooted across
the floor reluctantly;
you playfully stalked me
through the comfortable beauty
the preciously mundane
ebb-and-flow corridors of
our own strange
homespun-life-pattern.

Now gone.

The house aches
with a new silence.
Familiar sounds vanish
Swallowed In a terrible
inevitable fading
Avoiding this encounter
putting it off …

Finally
I clean up your sleep area.
I spot a tattered comforter.
I hold the memories
burrowed within
growing terribly faint
now with your absence.

Smells of fur flapping
in the car window wind
Visions of bright dawns and
you rip-roaring ahead
in a blur of fur for fresh air
exercise~hunger.
Smells of Christmas cookies
sounds of crinkling
wrappings in your teeth.
The touch of cool hallowed nights
Sounds of yelping
children hugging you ~
Swirling sights of dropped candy
giggly goblins and fun
~ HURRAH! treats and
dog-smooches: both free

Now an empty house

O Creature
You haunt my
waking~dreaming cycles:
Food frenzies vet visits
wonders walks
super-duper-scooping days ~ gone.

Thank you now.

Comforter my comforter still.

“Live now. This moment alone.”

Dale Anthony Joseph Beaulieu