In this season when the veil between living and dead seems most permeable, I happened on a poem I wrote 20 years ago for our old dog Taco. Lest it get lost again in heaps of time and paper….
Taco Looks Back a Lifetime
My humans supposed
they taught me how to use my nose –
still a puppy, just three days with a family
I never chose. We drove over winding
roads, to a fresh June creek where I rolled
in grass that was all my own. Then
my master disappeared, and everyone
clapped when I showed
I could find him with my nose.
A dozen years we drove that road.
I’d wake from watchful sleep, smelling
out the car window how grasses
fared and creekwater flowed.
I’d smile and pant, ready to work, but
my humans never chose to stop
there again. I’d learned my lessons,
I suppose. But a puppy-place
lives forever in an old dog’s nose.
~ Taylor Graham
