These I see with a dog’s eyes:
The hunched cloud on a sunset rise
Like a tawny cat with sickle claws;
The eyes, nose, mouth a rabbit draws
In the windy snow with its thimble track;
And the long moon burning, white on black.
These I know as a dog knows:
Disquiet of the effluent rose;
The tingling leaf, compulsive musk
Of shadowed deer on a track at dusk;
And the mad command to break and go
Inherent in the unscarred snow.
These I feel as a dog feels:
The fang keen at my nimble heels;
And a low, sullen, secret hate
For the leash and the whip and the latched gate.
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