Memorium to Brown Dogs

Everywhere
Brown dogs
  Mix. Mix, match
Brown to brown --
Hair and hair, generations of bones and dust,
All the dogs in the world
Mix, match, mix
Until they are all brown.

What love they bring.
And what love we have for them.
Rejoice for every happy dog,
  Smile.
Mourn for every unloved dog,
  Cry.
And please, God, bless their souls.

All those dogs, brown,
Black, white, tan, gray, blonde, red,
Speckled, dappled, brindled, spotted
Dressed up with white chins and feet,
  Shoulders strewn with ruffs of black,
  Withers stroked with fingers of platinum,
  Tails fringed and tipped in white,
  Eyebrows fooling with spots of brown;
Eyes of gray, blue, brown, amber, gold, and black,
  fogged cataract eyes,
  car-struck sockets sewn shut over beauty.
Flesh, blood, bone and sinew, nerve and instinct.
Match, mix. Mix our
Memories of our brown dogs.
God bless their souls.