Freddy was a good boy.
\nHe’s the first dog I remember.
\nMostly spaniel, a little beagle
\nmaybe,
\nall black and white,
\nwith spots.
\nHe didn’t have a collar
\nor a leash.
\nDad had a hank
\nof white nylon
\nrope
\nand he’d tie it
\nloosely
\naround patient
\nFreddy’s neck
\nand we’d go hunting,
\nFreddy, Dad, and
\nthree-year-old me
\nin my denim
\nfarm tuxedo
\nand
\nthose pointy-toed
\nlittle cowboy
\nboots.
\nI don’t think
\nmy Fred
\never flushed a quail
\nor retrieved a goose.
\nI’m not sure Dad
\never pulled the trigger
\nand my cap rifle
\nwouldn’t bring down
\na damned thing.
\nBut we’d go home,
\ntired and exhausted.
\nMuddy and happy.
\nMa would toss Dad and I
\nin the tub,
\nand Freddy would wait
\nbeside to
\nfollow me to bed.<\/p>\n
I used to lick
\nmy lollipops and
\nstick them to him
\nwhile he napped in the shade.
\nI’d come back
\nand retrieve them later.<\/p>\n
He’d watch me to the gate
\nwhen I went to school.
\nHe’d be there waiting
\nwhen I came home.<\/p>\n
After Dad passed away,
\nMom brought home a collie,
\na big, gorgeous collie named
\nChamp.
\nBut I never took to him,
\nI had Fred.
\nFred was my dog.
\nHe was a good boy.
\nAnd I was his,
\nhis good boy.<\/p>\n
He’s been gone a long time
\nnow.
\nClose to forty years.
\nI miss him still.
\nI’ve never had another dog
\nThey say you get just one,
\nthat one special dog that
\nno other measures up to.
\nI had mine already.
\nI had my Fred.
\nAnd Freddy’s dead.
\nI’ll never get over that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Freddy was a good boy. He’s the first dog I remember. Mostly spaniel, a little beagle maybe, all black and white, with spots. He didn’t have a collar or a leash. Dad had a hank of white nylon rope and he’d tie it loosely around…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1052,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56767","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\/1052"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56767"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56792,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56767\/revisions\/56792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}