In response to The Daily Post’s Daily Prompt: Stroll
Cloudy Stroll
©May 9th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
Take a stroll down your street
See that leaf spiraling in the wind?
Pick it up, stick it in your hair.
A piece of sunlight, green-veined,
Is yours for an hour.
See that man with his hound?
Slow and old and heavy they are,
Sweet and sad and patient.
There’s gentleness in his smile,
Protectiveness in the dog’s look.
Stop and pat the dog, who’s
Now accepted your existence.
His former loud bark, a mere
Expression of his being, now
Gone, as he looks up, quiet,
Calmly allowing my patting,
Perhaps drawing comfort therefrom.
The dog’s golden eyes seek mine,
There’s knowledge of death in his.
“They think he’s got cancer,”
Said the man, tragedy lurking in his smile.
My heart lurches. Tears sting.
I’ve come to love this barky hound.
I move on in the opposite direction,
Full of affection for Huckle,
And full of sadness for his master
Whose name I do not know.
And I walk on, homewards,
Wordless in mind, full of visions.
The sun slants through
The reassuring oak tree
Whose acorns
Scattered all around from last fall,
Still linger in spots.
This dog’s inevitable stroll
Through his days to his end
Hurts me.
I, too, will face death someday.
I don’t mind mine –
I mind his.
The afternoon sun seems sombre
Strange clouds gather on the horizon.
A cloudy stroll on a sunny day.
I ascend the steps leading upwards,
Up to my house on a hill.
Daffodils and tulips gulp the light.
And pale lilacs leave the ghost
Of their purple fragrance
On the sweet, damp air.
My heart is full of dog.
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