Watermark

Lucy

For thirteen years, it was a rare moment that Lucy (Lady Elucibeth) was not at my heel, or my shoulder, or on my lap. Lucy had all those qualities that we admire in dogs: faithfulness, loyalty, bravery, and deep, abiding love.

Plagued by fears beyond her control (the monster in the oven) Lucy rallied her courage every day to climb those steep stairs; to go through threatening doorways; to do her important and dangerous job of defending and protecting those under her care. She raised her foster-puppy, Henry, with great patience and sturdy example.

Lucy leaves this bereft human; Henry, her companion of ten years (who still looks for her); and many passionately-loved human friends who will miss her noisy, ecstatic greetings.

More Lucy:

• Watermark: A Cute & Silly Dog Post
• Cats or Dogs?
• Cats & Dogs
• Doglets, Dogster| flickr, tabblo
• Critical Positions in the Obama Administration
• Snapshot Poem 05 September 02007
• Lucy's Monsters
• Friday Critter Blogging
• Haircut
• Year of the Dog

snapshot poem 21 july 02010

grief accumulates
marbles in a leather bag
cat eyes, shooters, steel

dust in the corner
stones in the heart

feathers on the camel’s back

it comes in storms, in waves, in small winds
in large winds
in stone walls

you lean against it
it leans against you

you carry a village on your back
a steep village
a mountain of masonry
dense & crowded houses

all the people
all the other animals

heavy woven rugs
they weigh you down
their beautiful, mysterious patterns
ancient colors
signifying ...

the colors of rain
cold rain in the body
heavy and dark

you wake with tears on your face
a wet and silent pillow

nothing can hold it
not dreams, not the body, not

Parking Lot

If you leave the asphalt, what you have is dust and heat. Lever it out. Add soil, seed and water.

Now you have buds, bugs, and birds. Squirrels, field mice, worms, slugs. Shade, and shadows that shiver with breeze. Finches, sparrows, juncos, chickadees, nuthatches. Crows, cats and kestrels.

If your life has been stilled, or stalled, you can sit at a window and watch these other lives unfold. Fledglings quarrel at the fountain. A hawk takes a songbird right before your eyes.

Spiders cast their nets across the window well, up the junction of fence and wall. Some days the garden buzzes and flashes with erotic energy -- squirrels in a tumble of tails, gold pollen dusting leaves, yellow butterflies flickering like light in the vines.

A strong wind, a blizzard of rose petals, drifting pink and white in the flower beds. On a warm day, your brain is scent-dazzled.

Pet the bumblebee.