A dog's life

Although dog is bored, dog does not complain.
An occasional sigh, expulsion of disgruntled breath.
I tell him I’m bored too, but not enough
to fetch his lead. He settles for a rub
and a tickle or two. I like his composure.
‘Pleasure is the absence of pain, ’I tell him,
and, comma-like, his presence comforts me.

He has accepted me, after abandonment,
has stories I will never hear, a life
lived without and before us. We are not
so dissimilar then. New lives constructed
when the disappointments and the blows
bring down the here and nows.

He shows how it is possible, to decide
to continue. To re-emerge, perhaps
never to see the world the same again.
The walks, though unfamiliar , unnerving
still contain smells too exciting to ignore.