To Quartz (Mah Kuhn'nuh)

Oh mah deah kun'nuh dah douwg,

For your loyalty, the subtle, supple vigilance
you lorded over the world, legs splayed over the
roof of our rust-laced eggshell tercel,
glancing up at me, one ear-cocked to the right,
through liquid amber eyes that emanated,
not only reflected, light; as through your head
contained twin sepia-toned milky way galaxies--
I thank you so very much.

For your compassion, the tentative way you
sauntered to my crouched knees, when I
flailed from the immensity of the world
and folded unto myself in the filthy gravel;
for gazing at me knowingly, using the tufted
ivory fur that God must have flayed from
virgin cornsilk and grafted to your ears to brush
against my thighs and cradle my sorrows--
I am indebted to you.

For your forgiveness, the way you still stayed
faithful to me, even after days of forgetting to
feed you, leaving you to forage in the choked
backyard jungle for animal corpses, for forcing you
hunt for yourself, to mangle the cocky, carnelian-combed
roosters; for understanding that my soul starved as
your body, yet for still nourishing me with what
I was too weak to garner for myself.
My beautiful dog, I covet your benevolence.

I thank you for being more for me than I could be for myself.


Yours, sincerely,

Jour