Poetry Friday

Earlier this week, I shared the following poem with my class.  It really hit home with them and we read it a few times over the last few days.  It brings tears to my eyes every single time.

 

from. . . Unleashed: Poems by Writers’ Dogs,

Edited by Amy Hempel and Jim Shepard. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1995.

   

Shelter

R. S. Jones

   

 

You paused outside

to look into my cage.

I tried to play it right

wanting to catch your eye

with a shy glint in my own,

a soft bark,

that said, “Choose me,”

in a canine grammar

I hoped you’d understand.

Your face held nothing

(Pity maybe)

that let me believe

you would ever want

a dog like me.

You turned once,

twice,

a hundred times,

coming and going

the length of my cage.

(Coming and going

like you do now,

ten times a day.)

Then walked away.

I could not stand another day of

strangers coming to stare.

Passing me over for younger dogs who

knew too little to have the strange

look of longing

I could not keep from my eyes.

I could not stand another night

alone in that place

the cracked cement floor

the howls and whines that kept

me sleepless

(Did you know that sound is still the

one I hear

when you wake me kicking from dreams

sleeping in your bed?)

   

To read the rest, be sure to pick up the amazing compilation of poems written from the poets’ pets’ viewpoint.