This grief is familiar –
I feel it in my abdomen and jaw,
knit eyebrows,
clenched neck and shoulders.
It tints the brightest days gray,
paints blue tinges on my reds and yellows,
wakes me from deepest slumber.

I watch my most loyal friend stumble,
the ache in her bones summons ache in my heart,
a call and response ancient and unending.

I have lived this death sentence before—
sobbed in anticipation of the loss,
as in its presence and its wake,
foreseen it in the Tarot of daily life:
slow, erratic gait,
labored breath,
frailty of old age that needs no training to read.

We choose companions, loves,
knowing we will lose them.
Childhood cannot last forever.
Spring and summer yield to fall and winter.
Your autumn may be past, or not,
This warm summer day may be your winter,
or that may come next spring.
All I know is that I will be with you,
and my heart will bleed,
and I will embrace you
along with my grief,
forever grateful for our time together.

Thanks to Escape into Life for including this poem in its annual Dog Days of Summer feature. If you like this and want more, here’s my other Old Dog poem.