Dog

My dumb friend … You are so alone

because of us, each word and sign

we use to make this world our own –

the fraction that we should decline.

But can we point towards a scent?

You know the powers that threaten us.

You bark out when the dead are present;

you shrink back from the spell and curse.

These broken views we must pretend

form the whole and not the part.

Helping you will be difficult

and never plant me in your heart –

I’d grow too fast. But I’d guide his hand,

saying: Here. This is Esau in his pelt.