Labrador's Doggerel Poem by Michael Pruchnicki

One dogday afternoon my Labrador said -

'Why is a dog man's best friend, you think?
Why not a feisty tomcat or a shrinking rabbit?
Consider the irascible and proud mink,
which mostly eschews all human contact,
(except for vain women in haute couture)
on the ground that male primates simply stink! '

She added, 'One cannot ignore art and nature!
Most creatures do not appreciate a zesty bon mot,
as well as you and me! ' She grinned the way Labs do.
'Consider folks who live only to eat! They eschew art!
You and I consume lots of culture! We produce pearls! '

Okay, a Lab can't read, write or recite polished doggerel -
which Chaucer said was cudgel verse, kind of dog Latin
for those artists whose finished work shines and glistens
for all the world like a dog's turds freshly yshitten!

(yshitten = past participle of verb 'to shit' in Middle English)