Gloom Dog Days

One, then another, and another
with brief intervals between
the sharply painful losses,
they succumb to the illnesses
and frailties of old age,
leaving behind memories
and the loss of companionship.

Over several decades of
hailing one another, watching
them become playful together
their human companions
became familiar with each
personality and solemn or
bumptious, gleeful or restrained

canine character, calling their
names as casually as their
accompanying human companions.
The bond of familiarity and
that of camaraderie held fast.

Then, doleful news was posted
of the first to leave this casual clan
of comfort, the first ominous
signal of the brief and tenuous
nature of dogs among humans,
filling a special niche, then
departing, all too soon.

Over the years the losses
accelerated, each leaving behind
its aura of profound longing and a
resoundingly quiet and empty space.
No alternates or replacements
mended the gaps as the spaces grew
wider and more profoundly
infused with gloomy foreboding.

Ours now, the last two of so many
that once rampaged with the unaffected
joy of life. Gone, all others, their
clever and confident ease with their
environment absent from the woods
and ravines that once rang with the
decibels of their excited greetings.