i might have let the day
slip away without having gazed
up into the twilight sky
were it not for a brown and white
mixed collie trimmed in black
named Talulah

i might have kept drawing things
instead of witnessing them
but when she knows
we could be in bliss
she really insists
in that soft mournful sigh
akin to when Timmy
has fallen in the well
and Lassie is lamenting this
until finally i cannot resist

she is always right, of course

everything becomes glorious
at the crepuscular hour the trees
have a towering stagelit presence

leaves ripple in broad swaths of synchrony
we feel the freshened waves of night air
swoop around us and down the heated streets

i might have forgotten to look up
toward the furthest edge of sky
where infinity begins
were it not for a dog
who knows our connectedness

i might have gone on thinking
while all around the wispy air
swirls in golden hues
and all the earth
seas skies rivers
plains mountains and forests
hurtle together peacefully onward

©John Greenleaf-Maple – text and photo