A Dog's Lament

A Dog's Lament

I begged you not to use the gun,
When you thought that all was done.
Your hopes and dreams had gone awry
You told me all, I saw you cry.

You looked at me through distant eyes
I knew your truth, saw through his lies.
Your dread of life before you lay:
A path so twisted, forked and stray.

I loved you so that I would die
If it would help you, make you try
To see this world in different hue
Or let me die and come with you.

You saw not, my pain would kill
Me, when you left body still.
So now I’m left to grieve alone
To starve and fret to skin and bone.

And so must I, to suicide
No gun have I to last confide
So I must run away from home
To seek my death, a dog alone.

A truck’s great wheel may strike me down
Perhaps the river: help me drown
Only so, to be with you
Away from him, who hurt me too.

(A friend committed suicide: Two days later, we found her dog dead at the side of the road.)