Written in response to Poets United Think Tank Thursday:
write about something ugly
and find the beautiful in it.
He was a little mongrel,
living on reserve
where life for dogs
is often harsh,
the people steeped
in poverty and pain.
He found my friend's door,
asked questioningly
if he might find
kindness there.
He did.
She already had two dogs,
and was feeding other strays.
She could feed one more.
She named him Pepsi,
for his bright spirit
shining out
through sad eyes
that loneliness
and hunger
had turned old.
He sheltered
on her porch
as the winter winds
turned cold.
One weekend
she had to be away.
When she returned,
no one in the village
would meet her eyes.
"Pepsi's gone," she knew
and she began to cry.
Turns out
one man's idea of
reducing the homeless
dog population
was to tie a rope
around their necks
and drag them
behind a truck
till they were dead.
Where is
the Beautiful
in this Ugly,
you may ask?
My friends,
there is more
yet
to be said.
My friend found
poor Pepsi's body,
rubbed raw like
butcher's meat
alongside the road.
And - amazingly -
his valiant little heart
still beat.
She gathered him up,
rushed him by boat
and car
to the nearest vet.
They tended him
and healed him.
He pulled through.
Now any of us,
abused like that,
would carry
a bitter heart,
a snarling face,
and we'd
lay blame.
Not Pepsi.
His stump of a tail
still wagged
when they called
his name.
He never went back
to the village.
Those days
were done.
They found him
a forever home
with a woman
in a wheelchair
who'd lived
a loneliness
as vast as
Pepsi's heart,
and who had
all the time
and love
a heart
could abide
to lavish
on this
gallant little dog
who now
never leaves
her side.
After homelessness
and hunger
and the
worst human abuse,
Pepsi did not
seal away
his heart.
He learned
to trust again.
After all
he had been through,
he was brave enough
to give his heart
anew.
My friend had to
leave the village.
She could not
stay there
any longer
after that.
But before she left,
she spoke to
a gathering of
the village elders
about treating dogs
with compassion,
about the message
given
to the children
by mistreating
and disposing
of animals,
about attachment disorders
and
the numbing of emotions,
about health and wellness,
for children
and for dogs.
She brought in
the SPCA
who promised
they would travel
to the village
to pick up
any unwanted animal,
at their own expense.
Not one more dog
in that one village
needed to
endure
what Pepsi
had.
I'd like to say
the end of suffering
has come
to all the dogs
on Planet Earth.
It kills me
when these
devoted, loving
selfless
creatures
are abused
and treated
as if they are
of little worth.
But this one time,
this little dog
called Pepsi
shone a light upon
the differences
in human
and doggy hearts.
I'd like to think
at least
some hearts
were changed.
I know
my own
was
forever
rearranged.
