An Impatient Bitch

An impatient Bitch

By Jackeline Plank

The old Bitch tremored

at the base of the tree.

Her fur molting,

tufts of winter, waiting to shed.

Her hind legs ache as

She squats to relieve herself,

Arthritis screams from silent joints

Grown stiff and rigid

with the passing years.

I sense the deliberation in

The way her muscles move –

Every inch hard won and painful,

Her squat almost there….

Her owner, impatient and

Utterly unaware, tugs hard,

thoughtlessly at her leash.

Disconnected and hardened by habitual absence,

She rushes her incontinence and pulls her in unconscious brutality

Out of her quivering squat

And into walking!

I see a look of powerless dejection

At the utter loss of dignity

and the profound absence of patient care.

By Jackeline Plank