Her face so grave and serious -
not the nettle-lick of the bulldog
or the irony of the pug
as if she'd been bred to remind us

of the tenderness behind each tough
guy stance. I heard one brindled pup
spent a decade lashed to a nylon rope
in a garden next to an engine block,
another went down with kennel cough
and a third was kicked from a 79 bus

but ours stayed loved, and stoical.
After she died, the hole I dug
was so small, I had to break her leg
with the spade. She's giving me that look.

From: The Dark Film