Fang

The story of my first dog, an elegy.

Big ears brown and long

Limp and dumb upon the cheek

All the gull of youth and ignorance

Never to leave those brown eyes

I knew from the time that I first saw you

Those eyes, big in that heavy head

Looking up at mine the same

And the rest of the world seemed irrelevant

The others were wild and rampant

But you were calm and docile

You were the runt of the litter

The ostracized, the forgotten

But to me, you were perfect

In three years I watched you grow

Till your head was bigger than your child form

You the brute, white chested fawn fur

Black face, around those big brown eyes

Beside the limp ears hanging

Your life defined as determination

Would run till your breath ripped through your lungs

Investigate until every answer was known

And protect me, my small body

The child you outgrew

You lived for me and no one else

Lived for my praise, my abuse, my words, my hand

Caressing your soft fur just behind the limp ears

That fell beside your face

That lived next to your big brown eyes

Gleaming still as a childs

And you thinking you were us

Thinking yourself human

Believing you were as bad

But proving far beyond

Your life defined as determination

Your will, your will, your demise

Stuck with me all the way

You assigned yourself guard

And no one dare set foot on your soil

Nor approach your brother

You the brute, with that stout form

That Germanic face that said it all

Nothing was an obstacle to those eyes

Those big brown eyes, next to those limp ears

You were a gambler all along

And odds meant nothing to you

So sure of yourself, so iron willed

You lived for it, you adrenaline fool

You lived for it, till the end

Your life defined as determination

Your way, your end

Till you chased the intruder, fur as same as yours

That long legged intruder silent as a ghost

You were always chasing them off

Those browned eyes grazers

Despite my warnings my words couldn’t do

You with your iron will, and your brute brute way

And your speed of a train, of a train, of a train

Not stopping you, no seeing you, no saving you

Your last thought, your last sight

The pavement under your tough tough feet

And my next, was of you laying still, laying ever so still

And the sun sank behind the hill, unable to bear

And I took you in arms, off the cold stone floor

Back to your soil, your grass, your home

Caressing ever sweetly, in slow red strokes

Just behind the big limp ears still warm

And your big brown eyes in your heavy head

Looking on, looking on, somewhere I cannot see

Those big brown eyes never again seeing me

 

Author's Note

Opinions please.