Joey and the Gang

Joey

Photo by Janet Pantoja

MY FRIEND JOEY

—Janet Pantoja, Woodinville, WA
                               
My
best friend
loves me with
no conditions
in good times or bad.
My patient loyal friend
listens, forgives, is joyful.
My friend is my Dog—is God.

_____________________

Thanks to Janet Pantoja for rounding off our Seed of the Week: Best Friends Forever.  Next Tuesday (10/26) is Sacramento Poetry Day, so let's celebrate with poems about Sacramento—for better or for worse! Send your Sacramento thoughts to kathykieth@hotmail.com. 

_____________________

Sophia

When Dogs Wear Green Socks I
(cinquain pattern 1)

Sofia
wears green
socks after frolicking
in the freshly cut
grass


When Dogs Wear Green Socks II
(cinquian pattern 2)

Sofia
white, groomed
running, basking, frolicking
on freshly manicured lawn
disaster


When Dogs Wear Green Socks III
(cinquain pattern 3)

  white dogs
wear bight green socks 
after frolicking in
freshly manicured green grass
so cool


—Janet Pantoja

_________________________

YOU THANATOS!
—Janet Pantoja

Euthanasia: Eu + Thanato from Greek meaning good, well or happy + death;  Thanatos (death personified) an easy and painless death, act or method of causing death painlessly so as to end suffering.
 

Charlie . . .
I can still see you trotting happily
home from a jaunt in the woods 
coming through the chain link gate . . .
it would only be a matter of days until
you would return to the woods—still, cold, lifeless—

in a cardboard box.

Suddenly ill . . .
you wasted away in pain,
shivering sometimes--three long days,
three long nights passed by so quickly . . .
yet not so quickly, while You Thanatos!
hovered.

Decision:  euthanasia
it was a long last ride
to do the kind deed for you my best friend;
it was a long last hour for us . . .
you were heavy in my arms  
while I waited in anguish
in the little exam room for You Thanatos!

the needle prick was quick—
the last pain for you—wincing
your brown eyes wide open,
you were overcome by peaceful sleep . . .
the sorrowful ride back home seemed endless—

me with empty arms . . .
you in a cardboard box
in the trunk of the car.

Back home . . .
a headstone, a footstone
a circle of rocks, a covering of rocks
a torrent of teardrops
a few parting words  . . .
bye bye Charlie . . .
sleep peacefully next to dear little Koosha.

Epilogue . . .
fourteen years seemed like such a long time
and yet . . .
so suddenly, oh so suddenly
it was over—

you were gone, Charlie.
You Thanatos!
YOU TOOK THEM BOTH!

Note: Both the author's beloved dogs were euthanized.
Charlie 12/21/91 - 9/4/06, 14 yrs 8 mo
Koosha  10/7/89 - 4/14/05, 15 yrs 6 mo

____________________

Today's LittleNip:

The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say it.

—Edward R. Murrow

____________________

—Medusa

Charlie

Photo by Janet Pantoja