Imitation 12

To Our Dog

By: Lauren Jernberg

The time we went to the shelter

We thought that it couldn't be better.

I brought home a puppy oh so cute,

it fixed things starting at the root.

We became closer and much happier.

We even became quite a bit chattier.

We gave the dog the name Masson.

He tended to do a lot of chasin’.

He chased sticks and balls and cars,

and sometimes wound up in other yards.

He was very strange at first

We even thought he'd make things worse.

Running around and tearing things up

we thought we made a mistake getting a pup.

We were relieved when it stopped

and started his training from the top.

He learned so many new things

That he started acting like a king.

Then we realized something was wrong

When he didn't sing along.

To the vet we went and found

A growth seen with an ultrasound.

A few months later our best friend died

And we thought we would never survive.

But there is no need to fret

We went and got another pet.

And now we can laugh but will never forget.

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To an Athlete Dying Young

The time you won your town the race

We chaired you through the market-place;

Man and boy stood cheering by,

And home we brought you shoulder-high.

Today, the road all runners come,

Shoulder-high we bring you home,

And set you at your threshold down,

Townsman of a stiller town.

Smart lad, to slip betimes away

From fields where glory does not stay,

And early though the laurel grows

It withers quicker than the rose.

Eyes the shady night has shut

Cannot see the record cut,

And silence sounds no worse than cheers

After earth has stopped the ears.

Now you will not swell the rout

Of lads that wore their honours out,

Runners whom renown outran

And the name died before the man.

So set, before its echoes fade,

The fleet foot on the sill of shade,

And hold to the low lintel up

The still-defended challenge-cup.

And round that early-laurelled head

Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,

And find unwithered on its curls

The garland briefer than a girl’s.