A POEM FOR ALL THOSE DOG LOVERS

( sent to me from a friend in San Francisco)

  

DOGS AT LIVE OAK BEACH SANTA CRUZ

BY ALICIA OSTRIKER 

As if there could be a world

Of absolute innocence

In which we forgot ourselves.

 

The owners throw sticks

And half-bald tennis balls

Toward the surf

And the happy dogs leap after them

As if catapulted-

 

Black dogs, tan dogs,

Tubes of glorious muscle-

 

Pursuing pleasure

More than obedience

They race, skid to a halt in the wet sand,

Sometimes they’ll plunge straight into

The foaming breakers.

 

Like diving birds, letting the green turbulence

Toss them, until they snap and sink

 

Teeth into floating wood

Then bound back to their owners

Shins wet, with passionate speed

For nothing,

For absolutely nothing, but joy.

 

From Peter Woodgate