As A Puppy

She arrived silently, without
notice, not as the old, ailing
creature we are mourning, but
vibrantly active; small, black
and hairy, as she was many years 
ago when she first entered our
lives and changed us in ways
we might never have imagined
without her excited companionship.
Calm she was about her appearance,
and we happily disbelieving, hardly
prepared to understand the
mysterious ways of death and
how it burdens the grieving mind.
Happy that she returned however
briefly, to give us the gift of
recall, as she spread herself
in our arms, then upon the moist,
cool grass as she once so very
much loved to do, as a puppy.