Walking the Dog


Two universes mosey down the street
Connected by love and a leash and nothing else.
Mostly I look at lamplight through the leaves
While he mooches along with tail up and snout down,
Getting a secret knowledge through the nose
Almost entirely hidden from my sight.

We stand while he's enraptured by a bush
Till I can't stand our standing any more
And haul him off; for our relationship
Is patience balancing to this side tug
And that side drag; a pair of symbionts
Contented not to think each other's thoughts.

What else we have in common's what he taught,
Our interest in shit. We know its every state
From steaming fresh through stink to nature's way
Of sluicing it downstreet dissolved in rain
Or drying it to dust that blows away.
We move along the street inspecting shit.

His sense of it is keener far than mine,
And only when he finds the place precise
He signifies by sniffing urgently
And circles thrice about, and squats, and shits,
Whereon we both with dignity walk home
And just to show who's master I write the poem. 


Howard Nemerov 


I like this poem a lot. Obviously Howard Nemerov has spent a lot of time walking dogs because this poem describes it perfectly. I like how he describes the person and the dog as two universes. This is a nice way to describe it because of how people and animals see the world differently. I also like the part where the author says, "We stand while he's enraptured by a bush Till I can't stand our standing any more And haul him off."This is exactly how I feel when I am walking my dog so it is funny to see someone else thinking the exact same thing I do.