Today is Poem in Your Pocket Day!  Get a copy of your favorite poem, carry it in your pocket, and share it with everyone.  I'll be carrying a copy of "Out Here" by Richard Wilbur, former Poet Laureate of the United States.  This poem wonderfully describes one aspect of living in Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania.  It can be found in Wilbur's book Anterooms.
     If you will permit me, my poem today is one last dog poem.  This piece was written two years ago for my daughter and her dog, Casey.  Casey is but a few months shy of his 14th birthday and has, for these last two years, been showing his age. It is something all pet owners must endure, and probably the worst part of becoming attached to any animal.   However, an even more sad and tragic poem about a dog is "Dog's Death" by John Updike.  I also recommend Sharon Creech's Love That Dog, a story written in verse by Sharon Creech.  It is one of my favorites.
     Don't forget to carry and share a poem today.

Casey

 

Her once Black Lab now wears a mask of gray

twelve years in the making, and by the time

his aching legs coax him enough to stand

and growl or bark at whatever passes,

it's gone.  He sleeps now more than anything,

and many are the days his food remains

untouched well after noon.  She notices,

home for the summer, that her friend is old.

"It's so sad," she bleeds from her breaking heart,

"He doesn't know."  Perhaps.

                                                I like to think

he simply accepts now...and now...and now,

which leaves him better off than thinking men;

free from the knowledge that each passing day

brings the end so much closer, and yet not

unlike that one guest at every party

who drinks all night but is the only one

who doesn't know he's had more than enough.