There’s a different couple in the old Graham place you say as we drive home from town i wonder where the other lot went
Who knows they move about like gypsies i answer
wind
pelts jacaranda blossoms
against our windscreen
Look out they’ve got a dog
A half-grown black cattle pup lopes out of the gateway onto the roadside
It’ll stop you say not going fast but not attempting to brake either as it keeps running it’s tongue lolling to one side with what seems like a silly grin of greeting on its friendly face as it appears almost determined to run straight under the wheels of our 4 wheel drive
helicopter blades
above the cane fields
flatten the crop
Before you stop I’m out of the vehicle and by the pup’s side
It lies calm and still as it looks up at me our eyes meet shiny and bright in recognition before the life slowly drains away and they glaze over in finality
The woman screams you’ve killed my bloody dog i only got it yesterday you’ve killed my bloody dog
She almost throws down a girl toddler she’d been carrying in her arms
The child panics begins to cry and cling to her legs but she pushes her away standing alone over the dog
a gust of wind
whips her skirt
about her legs
A young man comes out of the house
Take the kid inside he says quietly
No she screams they’ve killed the bloody dog
Without saying more he picks up the child and carries her indoors making soothing sounds to comfort her as he walks
the door slams
one hinge rattling
loose
We continue the drive home in silence the woman’s high pitched voice ringing in my ears her accusations become my own
By her rebuke i now know that the light from those brown eyes will continue to follow me
I can’t stop thinking about the child will she always remember that day will she come to know as i have that life leaves the body through the eyes
narrow trail
the 4 wheel drive
shudders
Who knows they move about like gypsies i answer
wind
pelts jacaranda blossoms
against our windscreen
Look out they’ve got a dog
A half-grown black cattle pup lopes out of the gateway onto the roadside
It’ll stop you say not going fast but not attempting to brake either as it keeps running it’s tongue lolling to one side with what seems like a silly grin of greeting on its friendly face as it appears almost determined to run straight under the wheels of our 4 wheel drive
helicopter blades
above the cane fields
flatten the crop
Before you stop I’m out of the vehicle and by the pup’s side
It lies calm and still as it looks up at me our eyes meet shiny and bright in recognition before the life slowly drains away and they glaze over in finality
The woman screams you’ve killed my bloody dog i only got it yesterday you’ve killed my bloody dog
She almost throws down a girl toddler she’d been carrying in her arms
The child panics begins to cry and cling to her legs but she pushes her away standing alone over the dog
a gust of wind
whips her skirt
about her legs
A young man comes out of the house
Take the kid inside he says quietly
No she screams they’ve killed the bloody dog
Without saying more he picks up the child and carries her indoors making soothing sounds to comfort her as he walks
the door slams
one hinge rattling
loose
We continue the drive home in silence the woman’s high pitched voice ringing in my ears her accusations become my own
By her rebuke i now know that the light from those brown eyes will continue to follow me
I can’t stop thinking about the child will she always remember that day will she come to know as i have that life leaves the body through the eyes
narrow trail
the 4 wheel drive
shudders
by Janice M. Bostok
Murwillumbah, New South Wales, Australia
first published in Stylus Poetry Journal
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