Perfect Love
I am a dog lover. I've painted most of my dogs over the years. And in the last couple of years I have found that when a friend loses their dog, I ask them for a photo and they send it. I make a small painting from their photo and then present them with the little painting. It means so much to them, to have a physical place of focus top channel their wonderful memories of their lost best friend. I love doing it.
A few weeks ago I was invited to submit a poem for a little poetry contest. On a plane trip last week I pecked out what would become this piece. It is about Ray, big Yellow Labrador we had. I loved Ray and he and I were inseparable, until the night of 21 July, 2014. My wife Dorothy and I will never forget that night. I just had to write about it. The painting of Ray was made three months after he passed.
Perfect
It was time for Ray to go
He was twelve
A big yellow Labrador
My heart and soul
One summer night
Under the Milky Way
Ray labored as he took his final breaths
On the lawn
In front of the house
His heart was failing
Mine was breaking
Dorothy played
Leonard Cohen’s, “Hallelujah”
On her phone
In one final heaving breath
Ray left his body
And was gone.
2:30 am
What to do
Bury him in the tree beds in front
Fetch the shovel
Dorothy holds the flashlight
As I dig
Gleaming in sweat
A shallow grave but just deep enough.
A scene from a Sam Shepard play
Then to carry
Ray’s 100lbs dead weight
Wrapped in a towel
A long and slow twenty yards
Gently placing him
Down into the earth
Cover him with dirt
Shuffle to garage to return the shovel
The sprinklers erupt
Precisely then
Spraying healing mist into the troubled air
Uncanny
Perfect
Many months of grieving
Passing slowly
Sitting alone
Bereft
Seeing Ray all around
Leaves left the trees
Days became short
And then something changed
The old excitement
Of a new dog reached me again
I have been through this before
But how
What dog could follow Ray
Was the conundrum
It came to me
Only Ray could find his successor
I asked and asked
Ray, you can do it
I cannot
Winter came
And lingered
And then left
Green sprigs and Snow Drops appeared
A call came from John, an old friend
A fellow lover of dogs
Markie, a Black Labrador
retired show dog
Two and a half years
Was available for adoption
Loving
Loyal
Gentle
My new heart and soul
I am perplexed and comforted
By this magic
I know it was Ray
Who found Markie
My boy Markie,
Now turning nine at next birthday
And sugar around his mouth
I am enjoying him
More than I can say
With awarness of the day
Will come when the cycle
Of life and death
Will turn again
I comfort myself
Thinking
When I pass
Ray will be waiting
With the others
Bert
Spike
Pepsi
Vee-Vee
Misty
And Markie
This is how it is with
Lovers of dogs
Maybe that’s the key;
We get to love so many
Of God’s dogs
And share
Perfect love
