Four Puppies

 Four Puppies

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For this relief much thanks;
[it's] bitter cold
And I am sick at heart
                           ---Shakespeare
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Once upon a wondrous time

Amid an olden while sublime

On Grandpa’s farm,

I was but four

When Uncle Dave,

At heart rebellious knave,

A natural mutineer

Quite apt to charm,

Came home from war

With lead-hued souvenir,

A German Luger.

He kept the captured gun,

He said, of course,

To shoot for slapdash fun.

Among the piercing memories

I so struggle with are these:

(And do bear with me, if you please.)

My passing favorite puppies

I have ever had

(They were three

(Plus just one more,

Which made them four)

Of those joyful cuddlies

With pink tongues so wet

Who daily gave me gifts

Of pleasant times so glad,

And had from time to time

Their playful toothy grips on me)

He shot in front of me,

His German gun held sharply

To each furry head

As he shot them dead!

Count them!

Pop! … Pop! …

Pop! … Pop! …

Count them!

Count them! Count them!

First one, then two,

Then three, then four …

And then they were not more

To play with one who was but four.

Each small body in its turn,

With patent unconcern,

He then kicked off the bridge

With strong right foot

So shod in heavy logger’s boot

(Such sacrilege!)—

Count them!—

To splash … and splash …

And splash … and splash …

Into the river there, you see,

To flailing swim so feebly

And blot the gurgling waters so against

Each faintly struggling puppy

Darkly red …

Aft intervening many years,

I harbor well-hid tears

And I still wonder,

By grim gods of thunder,

“What did he do that for?”

But …

But there remains much more

To be addressed,

To be confessed,

That I so dread …

And fully fear:

In this instant breathing deep,

I tell myself that right now, here—

To honor those so long lost dear—

I must not lie ….

Just before those ghastly murders,

I did choose one pup to live.

And by my culling one

Of those original who were five—

The only one I was

Allowed to keep,

The one who then thereafter warmly kept

Me comp’ny while I slept

Amurm'ring in my sleep—

The unpicked four I marked

Thereby

To die.