Today's poem is our Verse Daily Poem Prize Winner by Grant Clauser

Blessings of a Dog
        "You must praise the mutilated world." Adam Zagajewski

She chases the threadbare tennis ball
across the kitchen, dives under a chair, slides
to catch it mid-roll then trots back
bearing the wet gift in her mouth
and asks with her eyes and paws
for me to throw it again. And I do,
again and again repeat this simple joy,
until tired she throws herself onto my lap
and gnaws my knuckles. Sometimes I want
this forever. The way a perfect fall morning
lingers in the scent of walnut trees.
All the grief of a summer we carried
like water, spilling with each labored step.
She's still a pup, has enough play in her
for twelve years or so. I know how that goes.
You love, they love. Everything goes on
like it should until it doesn't. She doesn't
know there's something broken in the world
that a ball can't fix, like a bearing that makes
the machine run smoother. Like the smell
of woodsmoke in the air that reminds
us of childhood innocence, even though
something in the distance is burning.

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Copyright © 2023 Grant Clauser All rights reserved
from UCity Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission