Street Animals
In a house, I like a presence
not my own
and I like contributing
to some other creature’s pleasure.
I prefer cats, but dogs prefer me.
These animals
are drawn into my life
as though by a magnet,
but it is yet to be determined
which is the magnet–
them or me.
Nonetheless, here we are.
They bark their language of in and out.
I motion my language of sit before being fed.
The cats do not enter since the second dog moved in.
One sits on the front wall to be fed and ventures no closer.
The other moved to dogless neighbors.
I am a resting place in their karma.
They come and go at will.
While the dogs, compliant prisoners,
escape through some careless open door when they can,
in minutes, they come home again
to walls and gates and high scalable domes
where they can watch that world
they have been saved from.
WordPress Prompt:Menagerie–Do you have animals in your life? If yes, what do they mean to you? If no, why have you opted not to?
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 