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Flashback Doggie

There were a succession of Tuffies

firstly your sister’s wire haired piebald

I remember him from when she was eight

listening while you read her bed time stories

 

Tuffy junior after old doggie succumbed to

brain cancer, a copy perfect as a Chinese

master reproduction, stiff as a brushstroke

air-dried in mid bark, left with a friend

when we emigrated

 

And Tuffy three, a replica not as perfect

who needed constant trimming to maintain

his crew cut but had the gruffest lower register

growl and didn’t give a damn as with haughty

upheld leg he sprayed tree after tree

 

After you had left, forever, unbelievably,

Tuffy three was collected by some anonymous

neighbor, sent off to some anonymous new

home, forgotten unforgivably in my sorrow

 

Not even a photo remains of any one of them

yet, so many years later, whenever I see

a wire haired terrier, something inside sighs

with uncontrollable nostalgia at his roughly

cut out shape, his strutting walk, even his

stiff upheld back leg until he disappears

again round some corner

 

out of my life again

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© Johnmichael Simon

2012

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