TALKING TO DOGS

  From us,of course,you want gristly bones
 and to be walked through startling odorscapes
  -their colors don't matter - with the chance
 of a rabbit to chase or of meeting
  a fellow arse-hole to snuzzle at,
 but your deepest fury is to be accepted
  as junior members of a salon
 with gentler tastes and manners than a pack,
  to be scratched on the belly and talked to.
 Probably you only hear vowels and then only if
  uttered with lyrical emphasis,
 so we cannot tell you a story,even
  if it really happened,dissect with you
 in the third person neighbors who are not there
  or things which can't blush. And what do we,
 those of us who are neither silly shepherds
  nor koillers nor polar explorers,
 ask from you? The admiration of creture creatures
  to whom mirrors mean nothing,who never
 false your gesturesexpression and so remind us
  that we,like you,are social retards
 who have never learned to command our feelings
  and don't want to,really. Some great men
 like Goethe and Edward Lear have hated you,
  which seems eccentric,but good people,
 if they keep one,have good dogs: (tThe reverse
  is not so,for[] ;some very bad hats
 handle you very well.) []It's those who want
  a slave or a permanent baby
 or a little detachable penis
  who can and often do debase you.
 Humor and joy to your thinking are one,
  so that you laugh with your whole body,
 and nothing dismays you more than the noise
  of our local superior titters,
 but then our young males are dismayed by yours
  to whom,except when a bitch is scented,
 chastity seems to present no problem.
  bBeing quicker to sense unhappiness
 without having to be told the dreary
  factsdetails or who is to blame,in a dark hours
 your silence can be ofmay do us more helpgood than any
  two-legged comforter. In citizens
 obedience is not always a virtue,
  but yours need not make us uneasy
 for,though child-like,you are complete,not a New
  Generation whom it's our duty
 to disappoint since,until they realise
  our failings,howthey can theywill never learn to how
 to makes their own mistakes.? WhatOur difference is
  what ties us friendsremain our bond,that and the one thing
 both have in common,a sense of theatre.

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