Dog Songs- inspired by Mary Oliver

Sable

You greet me by jumping.

Why am I special?

You never fail to recognize me, even if we meet after months.

You might have a chicken drumstick in your gut- a result of human neglect- and X is worried.

But you don't care and jump.

Jump to greet me and then jump to greet Sonya.

On the trails you are off, off-leash, off-sight.

Racing along the path.

Straight up the hill-side. Bounding over brambles. Down the ravine. Prancing back to check on us and darting ahead again.

You have X worried at the intersection. He bellows out your name- "SABLE".

Lambent returns.

We go up the bend to get a better view and wait.

We hear a jingle. Alas it is someone else and a fluorescent runner.

And the concerned chords call consistently - "SABLE!          SABLE!"

Minutes go by. We do not look at each other.

"High-maintenance fur-kid" I hear from a muttered breath.

We wait to hear the jingle of your collar.

We wait.

We hear a tinkle, but you travel faster than the speed of sound, you sprint up the path towards us, to the turn where we are. You FLASH by.

And we follow you trudging down the path.

Corchi

X- I look at thee longingly.
I am not interested in the pugs- though they be of my size.
I can run too, and keep up with the big kids.

Look I am leaping.
Look I am leaping again.
Why are you talking to them?
Can you carry me?

Lambent

"Akita-mix. Not too bright a guard-dog blood. To overpower the intruder till the master returns." - is the pithy summary.

You tug at your leash while your owner takes a tinkle.
You follow Sable, yet you do not follow Sable.
You frolic with Corchi.
You are happy to see me and lick my face.
You are the middle child, the "x" of X.

Thunder in the woods.

I raise my camera to take a picture of a bend in the path.
Longing for a wider angle lens.
Contemplate if I could climb up the hillside to get it all in.

But someone depresses my shutter for me.
And the flash is directed towards me.
An egg-sized piece of white twenty feet ahead of me.
Powerful.
Intense.
With tentacles radiating out in every which way.
I peer for the paparazzi photographing our presence.
I see emptiness and denuded trees in the low contrast bleak white light of these northern latitudes and fallen leaves on the ground.

Then I hear the cracking sound overhead. Someone cracking an egg- a really giant egg.
It rolls overhead like the sound of empty rail-road cars being shunted by a negligent engineer.

We pause.

Smiles break out on our faces. We look at each other.

X -"I do not get to hear this on the east-side. This has made my day".

Corchi cowers by X's side.

Sable and Lambent are off. Reflexively I call out- "Sable".

Moments pass by.

Tails tucked they return.
Sable curls and lays down in a small burrow- in the hollow of an upturned giant.

We continue.

She reconsiders her burrow. Up and out at half her normal speed.
With renewed respect for the powers above.