THE FORTUNE OF MAMMALS
My Corgi lays his tricolor head in my lapAnd he begins to breathe slowly and deeply.I marvel at how still his body becomesAs I feel his pulse underneath my hand.
At the first noise—a bark, maybe, or a caw—He jumps from the sofa out through the door,Clueless, but ready to track it down,Or get sidetracked by a careless squirrel.
The squirrel escapes but Bryn doesn’t mind;He had fun and barked everyone about it,Up from his wee body his huge voice belling,You’d think nature in love with the music of dogs.
He turns and trots back in, his tongue lolling,His eyes dancing, tail wagging, obliviousTo judgment and human self-consciousness,But eager to show me he knows his place,
Over thousands of years secured by trustAnd the fortune of mammals, warm inside,Where life emerges in the inward caulWith the genius to love another as friend.
My Corgi lays his tricolor head in my lapAnd he begins to breathe slowly and deeply.I marvel at how still his body becomesAs I feel his pulse underneath my hand.
At the first noise—a bark, maybe, or a caw—He jumps from the sofa out through the door,Clueless, but ready to track it down,Or get sidetracked by a careless squirrel.
The squirrel escapes but Bryn doesn’t mind;He had fun and barked everyone about it,Up from his wee body his huge voice belling,You’d think nature in love with the music of dogs.
He turns and trots back in, his tongue lolling,His eyes dancing, tail wagging, obliviousTo judgment and human self-consciousness,But eager to show me he knows his place,
Over thousands of years secured by trustAnd the fortune of mammals, warm inside,Where life emerges in the inward caulWith the genius to love another as friend.