River Dog

News Flash - since Molly's owner had to reduce the number of animals she cares for, guess where she now lives!

River Dog

(For Molly)

The river smacked black and brown undulations;

a quick silver gesture

used the victim’s weight to draw her down

Fighting and thrashing, wetting the banks,

slippier and slippier

And deeper she sank

And panic set on shore

To dive in after was suicide…

better than loosing the one?

The tow dragged her deep and the push held her back

in a futile circular madness

Time paddled…

Frantic and tired, she looked to the shore…

and strove to be with us

A calm then took me to the crumbling edge;

took me to the drowning, fear-stricken water

and I leaned steep into the bank

My hand extended statuesque, and

I smiled in her worried eye; she swam to me

from the peaty deep - of her second submersion

I locked my feet on root and stone

and made a framework of my bone

As I reached my hand, open-palmed, open hearted

I became the will of those on shore

I became the prayer of  lookers-on,

I felt her wet coat

and with her last great effort

I became her last hope