Bear is an informed dog,
She looks at me asking,
“Which of us will die first?”
She with her bandy legs,
Or me without the juices
To sustain life.

What a dog!
Black Lab, of course,
Are there any others?
Sheer extraordinaire!

In that moment,
It was but an instant,
Her eyes glazed over, catching
Mine, astonished by her stare,
We examined, together, the question of
Mortality.

Dog years.
Human years,
Merely the passage of time
Till one of us calls it quits.

Not a contest,
Just the way it is.
Who comes in first or after?
How will it end, in peaceful slumber
Or chaotic outrage, with lullabies
Or brass bands.

That knowing dog surely has the answer,
But she doesn’t intend to share it with me.

Charlene James Duguid
Amissville, Virginia