Dog & Father
The dog barked that year,
Delighted with its gift
To the family: a crow
With a broken wing, barely
Alive and struggling to remain
Here, in its mind, on this
Planet of remarkable birds.
When Bingo, the dog, barked,
We ran out and scolded him
For the effort. I remember
The look of sadness
That came over him: not
Unlike the look my father
Unleashed that morning,
Before his final sunrise,
In 1985. He’d been
In the throes of cancer,
So looking sad was pretty
Much the one vestige
Of giving he had left.
His dark eyes glistened
In that special way
Those about to leave us
Give off. The crow
Had it, too. Speaking
Of that crow, it died when
Bingo, in his excitement,
Stepped on its other wing.
My father left us sometime later.
This, then, is about gifts
And the unconscionable
Sadness they bring.
–Sam Pereira
from Five Points, Volume 12, Number 2 (Copyright 2008)
