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    The prompt from Poetry Thursday this week is to write a poem using the last line of a previous one. The line comes from this poem. Here is my offering:

    Today

    Marking time until daybreak
    in Frasier reruns and infomercials,
    I doze in-and-out of late night TV:
    this is the day you come home.

    I don’t sleep well alone.
    I don’t awake well, either.

    The pups bookend my body
    as I stretch out on the couch,
    missing you in dog days
    without benefit of explanation.

    They know only to hate suitcases;
    they are not pack animals.

    It’s not that you have been gone long,
    it’s that you have been gone.
    It’s not that I can’t live without you,
    it’s that I don’t want to.

    It’s daylight and Gracie runs upstairs
    convinced she will find you.

    “She’ll be home tonight,” I say
    as she slinks back and sits at my feet.
    Lola lays heavy on your purple pillow.
    Pining is exhausting work.

    The day feels like a week for us all.
    I pour my coffee and leave yours in the pot.

    For better or for worse, we said —
    for richer and for poorer.
    I want to go back and add one simple line:
    for bed and for breakfast.

    Peace,
    Milton

    15 COMMENTS

    1. Oh, how WONDERFUL, Milton! I especially liked the two stanzas
      They know only to hate suitcases;
      they are not pack animals.

      It’s not that you have been gone long,
      it’s that you have been gone.
      It’s not that I can’t live without you,
      it’s that I don’t want to.

      … and of course “for bed and for breakfast” is a winner, too. Now I want to know the poem that starts with that line. 🙂

      Peace and blessings,
      Hedwyg

    2. Oh, yes. I love this! It describes the pining so well…. I’m going to share it with my honey when we’re both home tonight. 🙂 “missing you in dog days/without benefit of explanation” – just lovely. Thank you so much for sharing it with us.

    3. This poem is sweet and very true. When someone you love isn’t home something just seems off – dogs, like humans are also very sensitive to this. Nice poem.

    4. I love the last stanza… really, the whole thing, but the last stanza, really pulls it together. And I get the dogs (only have one, though, light of my life).

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