The gloomy day outside ironic
Against my singing heart aloft
Despite the bluster of grey winds
Forewarning perhaps, or just this
Gusts to clear out leaves, dust
Trash against fence lines, a chill
Permeating the air with crispness
The man with his cane, stopped on the
Sidewalk, his jaunty cap pulled down
I drive on to my sister in law’s house
To drop a shared item of inconsequence
My pleasure as we speak at the door
Me watching her dog, head cocked
Attentively ernest in the voice of her
Master, the devotion evidence
Of the persistence in attachments
Formed with care and kindness
Driving then, to work, the man still
In the same spot with a younger man
A big brown dog joyfully jumping in the field
Adjacent to the deserted church; for sale
Both men animated by the dog, it appears
Their shared smiles testimony it is so
Remembering now, my five o’clock walk
The beagle standing at the corner of the
House where usually a black cat jumps from
A chair on the porch scaring me every time
That dog simply silent observer, his ear
The only thing that moved in the wind
My happy heart not so ironic after all