I was a tough street dog
with a lazy eye
the mange rotted out half my fur
I traveled alone
knocking over garbage bins
just to lick your dinner scraps
But most nights
I barked and growled and whimpered
the dull ache of hunger,
so much stronger than I,
eating me from the inside out
Near decades of insanity,
then I was caught,
locked in a cage
anesthetized
They picked the ticks out with latex gloves
bathed me with soap that burned my eyes
and gave me a name
It was a messy affair at first:
I paced my kennel,
confused by the bars
I bit the hand that fed me
out of sheer confusion that it was
My paws yearned for the freedom of open mesa,
the sterile white tile too unfamiliar to my toes
S
l
o
w
l
y
I acclimated
Two years later,
top of my obedience school class
I know all the tricks
I sit and stay
and piss on command
I’ll even fetch your slippers
if you scratch behind my ears and call me a good boy
And you would never know
As I curl up at the edge of your bed at night
and fall into my dreams,
that as my legs twitch and jerk,
I dream of garbage and bared teeth,
blood on my tongue,
and running far, far away from you
Dineshraj Goomany. flickr