My dog slops water
with urgent abandon
like a prize pig from teeming troughs

The prosody of his play is
Loose and wild —
He seizes the dog park by the neck

A rabbit darts across our path
And murder fills his heart,
I barely restrain him

He thunders after thrown balls
With reckless power,
A thoroughbred down the final stretch

He speaks affection,
Physical phonemes,
Any warm body will do

He shatters strangers
With doleful eyes
And unapologetic pleas

He embarrasses and wounds me
When the dog in him
Trumps the friend and companion

But he’s teaching me
Meekness need not extinguish passion,
Gentle and wild can coexist