PORTRAIT WITH DOG Poem by Rutger Kopland

That dog and I. He has withdrawn
into himself, and I

- I had laid my hand
on his back, his coat wrinkled,
I had looked into his eyes and he
stared up at my face as though
he was looking for something from my lips,
I had muttered something and
he laid himself down, sighed
and went to sleep -

I must have been something
in that hand, that face, those lips,

something I once knew, but that is now
hidden away in him, that dog.