Gee, writing about animals. That’s new and different.

I can’t help myself.
They’re just too cute.
If I’m going to write from real life, I’m going to write about animals, I guess. I’m just an anthropomorphizing sucker.
This is also dedicated to Quest, the dog. And to my efforts in convincing my parents that we ned to get another lab, since it’s been about a year since Lucy died. Woof.

Enlightenment

Black lab bodhisattva shines on his holy
tatami mats made of Midwest grass, in perfect
zen. Where canine paws pad down, lotus
blossoms bloom and kiss the air with fleshy,
joyous petals blushed pink and white, thankful
for the pulse of water and air that pulls their roots
through black, sticky earth. On his brow glows
the onyx sutra, the jasper filigree of creation
etched into his pleading eyes. Each pant is a sermon
steam forth from a canine smile: Let go, please—

toss that ball far out into the forests
of my universeever secret, ever unfamiliar,
where I will bound in samsara. I am fleeting
and fast, four legs flashing in a sable sword dance
that slices through miles shade and soil, searching,
snapping and slobbering as I seek the orb, return it
and sit stretched, waiting for it to soar overhead
once more. My mind is my snout, an organ
for digging down deep into these hills. The richest
vein lies buried somewhere here in the sandy, cool
bottoms of reality, just within this bhikku’s reach.