Goes Without Saying

Nights have matured from repairs of wear-and-tear

To respite that supersedes

Mere maintenance

In each sleep's pause and paws of limited days left

For both of us, old friend

***

The girl of my dreams has reached

Her destination before us

And we lie in wait, in wrinkled contentment

For her destination to catch up and retrieve us

With you, the third piece, where puzzled dreams remain

***

Now, of our trio, it's just the two of us

How well can an old pupper take her side of the bed?

Hardly! Thinking such is pointless

A different formula of both man and beast

Bidirectional reactions via canine catalyst

***

When she slept with me, those years

I resisted your joining our bed —

No animals!

Some places have no place

For dogs and such.

***

I forbad it until

Her unspoken epiphanies:

At our ages, you would be the last dog we have —

Announcing a timeline measured in dogs and such

Queer call to mortality

***

20-year warranty — the last roof we'll ever need replace

10-year power-train — the last car we'll ever need drive

Lifetime warranties are all that are left for our last things

Last things — funny way to think about life

***

Last things — they cement a legacy

What we've accrued, just for the estate sale to come

A score not worth the tally

But you, my friend, next to me, have always known

The important things to have and keep

***

You side-eye me, but it's a ruse

For you smell her side of the bed

And cannot fathom why

I miss her as if she weren't here

You let me know — you smell the future

***

I side-eye you, ol' boy

Side eyes meet askance

Our peripheral vision meets in parallax

As we lie laughing with our side-eyed eyes only

And dismiss all the other things not us

***

You side-eye me, head softly down

Knowing your place by my side

I side-eye you, not as substitute, but complement

My new backup wingman

As I am cleared for my final approach

***

For what, do we wait?

I wait for her

Fantasizing posthumously

You wait for me

And follow, come what may

***

Old boy, you sniff out the future

You smell the pain of her absence, too

We're in this void together

Filling it as best we can with redolence

A bouquet half-full, half-empty

***

We side-eye each other now

Your tongue darts in and out

In tentative greeting invites

My rejoinder to you and I respond

With the face that launched a thousand wags

***

The whole bed shakes, oscillates, rhythmic

To your morning salutation and best wishes for the day

Myself: 98.6; you: a balmy 101

Tenderness has a way of distributing evenly

And warmth is shared in Redemption

***

I won't get out of bed this morning

I can't get out of bed anymore

Your hips agree but you would

If I would

We old fellows wait for it

***

There is a beauty in living together

Restated quietly by sleeping together

Asleep, yet we know, what is there, who is there

A silent conversation waged in the strange æther

That slips through alert fingers and noses come morning

***

There is a beauty in living together

Sublimated by dying together

I missed my chance with her

But together we'll both catch up to her

Till then, thank you, my friend