of dog & chipmunk

the fluffy combo of yellow lab &
something else that
you just can’t put your finger on
(let’s say 80% of the prior & 20% of the latter)---
he sits at the sliding-glass door,
poised to pounce---
ironically in that same fashion which his
sworn adversary might
when confronted with a
mouse.

outside the door,
on the other side of the clear pane,
sits the
chipmunk.

it scurries along the wooden floor of the deck
with its brown & black stripes---
it pauses to smirk at the dog,
who now, closer than ever to the glass,
loses his sense of control.

the dog forgets the last time that he went diving into the
glass when trying to catch this
chipmunk
(whose only purpose in life seems to be the torment of this dog),
with his body shaking in anticipation & at a
loss
when it comes to any sense of restraint.

so with his hind legs
he propels himself towards the chipmunk
(who now, on his own hind legs, sits & watches on the other side of the
glass door, nibbling on a nut),
& sure enough,
quicker than you can say
“nincompoop,”
he hits his head on the door---
his neck retracts with the blow,
and his body drops straight to the floor---
he lays there shaking some sense into his own head,
pissed off at the chipmunk,
who by this time has finished his nut,
grown bored with the dog’s antics,
and has made his way back into the forest---
only to return tomorrow,
again,
to wreak havoc upon the dog’s
psyche,
spicing up its own
otherwise
boring
day
of trying to stay alive in the
wild.