This morning, I woke up with an email from a dear friend.
COMET
I love the distant memory
because it hands like the branch
on the lemon tree in our yard,
the dog jumps onto the bed
with a green ball between his jaws
and shakes it, he growls, his eyes are fierce,
I grab it after a minor struggle
and throw it, down it goes and bounces
over rough terrain, past tumbleweed
and lava markings, past the stream
and down a dry arroyo, the canine mind
calculates and amalgamates, the dog engines
begin to rev up, all gears are ready. . .
Comet turns quickly and leaps
onto the floor, he rushes past the door
and enters the earth spread out before him,
he is after that green ball
and nothing will deter him
I love Comet
a border collie, Australian shepherd mix,
he lives in my head and
zig zagged through my forties and early fifties,
we ruled the hillside and slid together
down tough grades of gravel,
he lived a tame wild life in this city
of cats and bicycles, he loved
two masters, he served one antique code
to live and to enter
into the kingdom, his eyes fell to rest
as I held on to the metal gurney
one late morning, his back had gone out
but the spirit spun
-Neeli Cherkovski
Dec 28 2012
