DogSpeak #9 Dog Hair

Always yelling, telling us
to get off the couch, the bed,
your favorite chair,
even outside on the deck
to get off the chaise lounge.
The hair you say –
well, yeah, we’re dogs
made of hair.

Don’t be misguided;
we are not common dogs
we don’t like hardwood anything
nothing without tufting,
no unfluffy rugs for us,
no cold hard flat surfaces.
Though we have our own padding,
we want to curl up and stretch out
in an ocean of high-density
high-quality polyurethane fiberfill.

We like sink-to-our-bellies cushy
we love deep-as-our-knees comfy
we want down-filled pillows
under our feet when we walk.

We want to roll over and over
in a field of cotton clover,
a couch of springy soft foam,
recliners covered in silk damask
stuffed with the wool from a thousand
newly-shorn sheep, and expect us
to leave some dog hair behind
to remind you we were there.

Brush us all you like, day and night,
we’re dogs, we shed… a lot –
you should accept that and
to helling with the yelling.

We want to nap in the lap of luxury
want to sleep in doggy sweet dreams
on the overstuffed sofa
and not have you chase us off.
It’s only right, we are not common dogs
it’s where we belong –
after all, that’s why they call it fur-niture.

~ J R Turek