Excerpts from Dogs in Topanga 2000-2018

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Excerpts from <i>Dogs in Topanga 2000-2018</i>

Excerpts from Dogs in Topanga 2000-2018

Dogs In Topanga These spirits, these fakers, adventurers out to filch a bone, a bowl of water, treats, can charm you to death with their playfulness, coyness, flirting, their wisdom, their knowing sometimes it is more than right, simply, gloriously, to lie down, do nothing and be. Dog Spirit My neighbor’s Black Lab Holds up his right front paw And will not step on it, it’s hurt And then that little pup just walks around On three legs only--walking!-- Walking, as a matter of course, Not about to take this lying down, Oh, no, instead, Resolved to get around, And live his life No matter what.
Jane Marla Robbins enjoys licks and laughs from her dog, Dancer.
Memory’s Fool
Dancer, when I open
your crate in the morning
and scratch under your cheek,
your long pink tongue
unfurls itself on my wrist.

You came to me starving, bleeding, shaved,
now everyone calls you “Fluff Ball.”
Four inches of white obscure your shape,
but I know who you are—
I wear your perfume on my wrist.

The first year, when I called,
I’d shout your name, again and
again, screaming down the ravine,
and still you wouldn’t come,

and now you seem to take a joy
in running to me when I call.
Perhaps you smell your perfume on my wrist

From Dogs in Topanga 2000-2018 (Shining Tree Press ©2019) by Jane Marla Robbins
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