I will follow single file all my dogs
Through their deaths to Valhalla
Or to final immolation into ashes,
Not to be scattered haphazardly
But placed amid the dead roses,
Along the line of blue spruce
Christmas trees we planted for
Their lives when they lived and
Wandered along the thin trunks and
sparse foliage, needing seasons.
I will go into the darkness or light,
Whichever they found after breathing,
Be with them forever in cold or warmth,
All sinless, eager, stripped of lovelessness.
