Taking Off from an Old WCW Poem

• Imagine that — my last words
• might have been spoken to the dog, she
• who saved my life, it has been said, spoken
• with no thought
• of reply nor of understanding, a genial insult
• maybe, a philosophical conundrum
• posed aeons before any household pet ever
• turned an ear. In the ambulance I made no remark
• about trees nor how tired I was of them,
• and in the second ambulance our dog’s heart
• beat hard with terror.