The way of all dogs

I had an urge to try another golden shovel poem. I wrote my first golden shovel only a few weeks ago and found it heavy going. Something suggested (the Oracle?) that I ought to try one of Kerfe’s or Merril’s poems, since they often seem to fit together naturally. This golden shovel is based on the first stanza of Kerfe’s latest poem, My dream about dogs. We both wrote about dog dreams for this particular prompt, so there had to be a connection. Needless to say, the Oracle (or whatever) was right. My embroidering of Kerfe’s lines flowed without a single hesitation.

Please read Kerfe’s entire poem here. Her drawings, of course, accompany both poems perfectly.

The way of all dogs

In the dreamtime, the
world was bright, and dogs
ran where they would, were
always there, always here,
beside, behind and before, the first
of all friends, before me, before you.

We make chains now, think
to enslave every spark we, you
I see in wild eyes, to own
their vast spaces and fence them
all about with interdictions. But

though the links constrain the flesh, no
chains can hold free spirits earthbound, they
show us the way, if only we’d look, lead
us back to the bright dreamtime you,
I, say we regret. So let the dogs loose and follow.