Never thought I’d be writing one.
Never wanted a dog.
What’s a dog, really,
but a child that never grows up?
Still, I let them talk me into a puppy,
'cause that’s what you do for your kids.
Whatever they swore, I knew he’d
be mine when the weather was bad.
Of course I was right. He was mine.
And right about this too:
dogs never do grow up,
but they do grow old and sick,
and the dog you never wanted
leaves a bowl and collar
and a hole in your life
you never thought he could dig.
Gloria Parker's poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Margie, Slipstream, Rattle, Nimrod, Black Coffee Review, Loch Raven Review, North Dakotah Quarterly, Tipton Poetry Journal, Gyroscope, Third Wednesday, Hiram Poetry Review and one, forthcoming in The MacGuffin.