Eye On Life Magazine

Make every day a beautiful day.

Eye on Life Magazine is a Lifestyle and Literary Magazine.  Enjoy articles on gardening, kitchen cooking, poetry, vintage decor, and more.

Basset Hounds and Love Affairs

Whenever I pulled, Jerome sat

and straightened his stubby front legs

to fight the leash. Too stubborn to house train

he followed his nose away from home every other day.

Dad and I searched the neighborhood for hours

to bring him back. Oh, why couldn’t he be more like Lassie?

 

The last time I watched Jerome’s squat body

shrink with distance through the car’s rear window,

grief burst from my chest like a surprise

party stripper from a cake. I cried for days.

 

All those impossible women

with their late night crying jags,

Ronald Reagan campaign buttons,

vacant looks, and unvaccinated children

stare at me from across the decades

with a Basset’s sad eyes.

 

To make amends I dream

the patience and pure heart

I’d need to share a home and

ungainly dog with each. Reality

tears these good wishes from my fingers.

 

Today, a Basset trotted over to me,

while his owners walked him near the sea wall.

I knelt. He climbed onto my lap and slobbered my face.

I stroked his head, whispered an apology into floppy ears,

and walked away.

 

Jon Wesick