A January Walk Poem by Eli MorenoDrew

Walking on days like today
helps me forget about some things.
Walking with two mobile mutts
helps me forget about most things.

Each dog and leash an appendage
of my own two arms,
being pulled this way and that.
One of them stops, sniffs;
he's about to make this tree his.
And the fire hydrant,
and that random grass spot
by the crosswalk.

Dogs don't know what
heartbreak feels like.
The only person they could lose
is you and you know you couldn't
function without their wagging tail.

On the walk home
they're usually tired,
walk more timidly than before.
Then we get home
and they guzzle down water
like its their first drink
from their mother's teat.

They never say thank you,
my dogs,
they don't speak English.
Instead
they wag their tail
and sleep away the afternoon
like I wish I could.