13th July 2020

rainy morning

brings silence to the garden

absent birds

© Rachel Green July 2020

Old dogs, long dead.

Laddie, on his long chain

and a half-hundredwieight

running, running

along the canal path.

Shane, old white terrier,

herding the rabbits on the lawn.

Beala, fat and stupid,

cyring in the hearth.

Edward Bear, well trained,

playing with a football on the front lawn.

Jake, steadfast, old, Airdale,

Penny, escaped and broke her pelvis;

Megan, just generally loopy.

The perfect Holly, dowager corgi;

Blind Jester's riverbank running.

Neurotic Jack, eating the sofa;

(Patch, who came indoors to piss;

his brother Duke, who hated cats)

Gentle Bear, full of love.

Trickser, barking, barking, barking

and placid Moos, scared of shadows

(still alive at time of writing.)

© Rachel Green July 2020