I had a dog of dreams once.

I found him at the pound–

where all barking dreams are found.

I took him home in a coach of wishes,

and couched him furry in a tapestry of time.

But as the color faded

red from the tapestry,

The dog unwound

and the dreams were gone.

 

I had a tree of rainbows;

Pots of gold forgotten innocence.

My dog of dreams, leg lifted,

Nurtured the tree skyward;

Till my world was trimmed

with rainbows of laughter,

And hands upreaching–

full of nothing.

 

My sailboat of sinking water

rose and fell upon the waves

And beat its’ satin sails

against the hole in the sky

where the gold poured through.

And I was happy sailing nowhere, smiling–

I and my dog and my tree.

 

Then one day the hole turned vacuum

And, Jesus, sucked my dog away.

I sleep now,

Cat paw nestled

in the dreamless darkness.

Nothing in the world has changed

But me.

And I haven’t been the same

since the pound

took back that dog.

 

Spring 1970