Love
       

Sometimes you can see it enter the dogsee
him look sharply to one side
then the other
as if to wonder where it came from.

A shiver from nose to tail
like when rain seeps through his hair
onto his skin provoking a massive shrug
so that drops scatter up and away in circles.

He tucks his tail forward
between the long slender bones of his hind legs
and gathers himself as it takes hold.
He is a catapult stretched, poised,

his whole body overflowing with nothing more
than love for himself and for the lightning
he will become when he lets go and bolts,
scorching the sweet smelling turf.

Tweet

Copyright © 2018 Judith Barrington All rights reserved
from Long Love
Salmon Poetry
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission