Memories have always made my mind swerve in circles<\/p>\n
As if they, themselves, can’t quite figure out which direction to go<\/p>\n
Like taking a safari, if the guide were senile and possibly less than sober<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
To your left, you’ll see my great-grandmother cursing in Hungarian<\/p>\n
as if her kitchen was a 5 story apartment complex engulfed in flames<\/p>\n
and the nearest firefighter was 18 miles away<\/p>\n
because someone had the nerve to imply she was cheating at Canasta.<\/p>\n
We snapped this photo just in time. You can’t see me in the frame, but I can see me.<\/p>\n
Standing behind the man holding our new fangled digital camera and, trust me,<\/p>\n
I was laughing as hard as she was cursing<\/p>\n
But she is gone now and this memory has turned from citrine to cerulean<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And quick! To your right<\/p>\n
It looks like we’re just in time to see the common night predator known as “that guy”<\/p>\n
Now don’t be fooled by his looks,<\/p>\n
this one’s dangerous,<\/p>\n
whatever you do, don’t make direct eye contact<\/p>\n
See how he grabs me by the arm<\/p>\n
Watch as my resistance becomes a broken nose and two black eyes<\/p>\n
But wait!<\/p>\n
See my fists transform to fire forged fury<\/p>\n
And this night of obsidian turns orange<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And dead ahead, behind the bushes<\/p>\n
Watch as our playful puppy grows into dying dog<\/p>\n
This one<\/p>\n
This one, I never could quite figure out<\/p>\n
When they can no longer jump onto the bed<\/p>\n
When their aching joints move like molasses<\/p>\n
When dinnertime no longer brings a wagging tail<\/p>\n
And they try not to yelp as they put one pained paw in front of the other<\/p>\n
The vet tells you “it’s time”<\/p>\n
“It’s kinder this way”, the doc will say<\/p>\n
“Can’t you see, she’s in great pain?”<\/p>\n
The family gathers round<\/p>\n
Teary-eyed and torn<\/p>\n
Wishing she could talk<\/p>\n
Tell you what is wrong<\/p>\n
Where is the pain, pup?<\/p>\n
Show me where it hurts<\/p>\n
But I promise you that<\/p>\n
that would only make it so much worse<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
See, let me pose a problem with these progeny pups<\/p>\n
If they could, indeed, say what they need<\/p>\n
That pet would look a lot like me<\/p>\n
Too close to human<\/p>\n
A brand new breed<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And they would tell us where the agony lies<\/p>\n
And we would tell them it gets better<\/p>\n
They’d say how much it hurts, this life.<\/p>\n
And we’d convince them that they need to fight<\/p>\n
And this would mean the devastation<\/p>\n
Of the “dog is man’s best friend” equation<\/p>\n
But this has been the way for eons<\/p>\n
And something must be done<\/p>\n
And so dog, always the bigger man, would choose to evolve<\/p>\n
Into something that no longer speaks<\/p>\n
Until the only sounds they knew to make<\/p>\n
Were grunts and barks and growls and yelps<\/p>\n
Because then we would relearn to help<\/p>\n
Then, and only then, you see<\/p>\n
We’d listen to what they had to say<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If I learned to bark as she<\/p>\n
Do you think they’d start listening to me?<\/p>\n
If I used yelps instead of rhymes<\/p>\n
Would the doctor finally say “it’s time?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Memories have always made my mind swerve in circles As if they, themselves, can’t quite figure out which direction to go Like taking a safari, if the guide were senile and possibly less than sober To your left, you’ll see my great-grandmother cursing in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4616,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4616"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133733"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133950,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133733\/revisions\/133950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}