Responsive to the tune of lawns and trees Dogs sally forth In whiskery mongrel innocence; all over town The irresistible rumour of the day Prickles their hides and sets their bladders singing Of doggy derring-do beyond their dreams. No street but has its canine tributary - Confluent in lanes, They swirl about in bright-eyed vortices, Whirlpools of snap and sniff and pink-tongued grin.
Quizzical howdies done, the world's a labyrinth Of tortuous delight through which his nose Leads on each quivering Theseus. Dazed, dazed they go Into the maze of history where the sharpest Barkers fall silent... O humble retrospection, whose sole means Lies in the bleached unanswerable Excreta of the past, the spicy airs Rising from every spot where dogs have paused, And, pausing, thrown a bridge across Time's stream!
Let the bells swing low, their clappers muffled be, All over town, in many a public place, Dogs are having their first one for the day, Rapt vacuity on each raffish face.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
A happy song for a happy thing
Date: 2010-12-15 11:45 pm (UTC)Responsive to the tune of lawns and trees
Dogs sally forth
In whiskery mongrel innocence; all over town
The irresistible rumour of the day
Prickles their hides and sets their bladders singing
Of doggy derring-do beyond their dreams.
No street but has its canine tributary
- Confluent in lanes,
They swirl about in bright-eyed vortices,
Whirlpools of snap and sniff and pink-tongued grin.
Quizzical howdies done, the world's a labyrinth
Of tortuous delight through which his nose
Leads on each quivering Theseus.
Dazed, dazed they go
Into the maze of history where the sharpest
Barkers fall silent...
O humble retrospection, whose sole means
Lies in the bleached unanswerable
Excreta of the past, the spicy airs
Rising from every spot where dogs have paused,
And, pausing, thrown a bridge across Time's stream!
Let the bells swing low, their clappers muffled be,
All over town, in many a public place,
Dogs are having their first one for the day,
Rapt vacuity on each raffish face.
-- Bruce Dawe