20-year-dead Annie
Posted: October 29th, 2005, 5:04 pm
If I (in still the first of life’s quick thirds)
reflect two decades back on how was death
first met and understood, then was a time
when only dogs could die—and that was grief
enough; why undermine an honest pain?
And honest pain was met in Annie. She
had the joy and look of Grandma’s hair
on stubby legs and bitch-wagged tail; and where
my preschool hoped my mind would grow was the
epitome of life she taught again
and still again. And then she died. One brief
encounter (months in taffy life) and I’m
still taught by how I missed that dog. What breath
could better teach me that in human words?
reflect two decades back on how was death
first met and understood, then was a time
when only dogs could die—and that was grief
enough; why undermine an honest pain?
And honest pain was met in Annie. She
had the joy and look of Grandma’s hair
on stubby legs and bitch-wagged tail; and where
my preschool hoped my mind would grow was the
epitome of life she taught again
and still again. And then she died. One brief
encounter (months in taffy life) and I’m
still taught by how I missed that dog. What breath
could better teach me that in human words?