Dog Story by Donna Hilbert

Dog Story

Perhaps because I’d finished a book
the night before, about a dog
who’d pulled a woman
from the sea of grief,
on my morning walk when I see a dog,
that looks like the first dog
I ever wanted, I put out my hand
for a lick.

The dog of memory walks
up the street to sit beside me
while I pull weeds
from shaggy grass.
The boys are small. When they see the dog,
they want to keep him too.

“It’s only right to take him to the shelter,”
my husband says, while hustling the dog into the car,
“in case the owner comes to claim him.”

Husband returns from the shelter, reports
“The dog can be adopted Saturday
if the owner hasn’t come by then.”

On Saturday morning, “Go get our dog,” I say.
“After tennis,” he says.
“Go now,” I say, “If I had a car,” I say.
“There’s time,” he says, “after tennis.”
“Please go now,” I say.

On Saturday afternoon, after tennis, after the shelter,
“Where’s our dog?” I ask.
“Too late,” Husband says.
“If I had a car,” I say.
“I’m sorry,” he says.
“Too late,” I say.

*

Donna Hilbert’s latest book is Enormous Blue Umbrella from Moon Tide Press, following Threnody, Moon Tide, 2022. A second edition of Gravity: New & Selected Poems is forthcoming from Moon Tide in early 2025. Work has appeared in numerous journals and broadcasts including Cultural Daily, Gyroscope, Rattle, Sheila Na Gig, ONE ART, Vox Populi, The Writer’s Almanac, Lyric Life, and anthologies including The Poetry of Presence volumes I & II, The Path to Kindness, The Wonder of Small Things, I Thought I Heard a Cardinal Sing. www.donnahilbert.com