Thursday, September 7, 2017

Canine Consequences







When we got this dog

I didn’t read the fine print.

It’s only when she died last Thursday

did I realize what was due.

A balloon payment of deepest sorrow

to be paid immediately!

It cannot be postponed

even for a second.

I accept this charge in its entirety.

No way shall I avoid this moment

or this moment or this moment…

It is the price I pay

for what I received from Ryla.



But embedded in every sorrow

is a bright memory.

Inside every fond memory

a dark sorrow looms.

“Bright and dark are a pair

like front and back foot walking … *

When Ryla and I would come home from our walk

while bending down I would say to her

“Kiss that pretty girl on the nose,”

which I did.

This is how it is, just now.

Shitou would say, “Don’t throw away your time.”


Bill Krumbein
September 2017


* Taking Part in the Gathering by Shitou Xiquan (700-790)
   Shitou taught that “what meets the eye is the Way.”

See September 2, 2017 post

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