All and With ...

The first time I thought you'd die—

Looking into your life-bright eyes, then

Down that crooked leg that made you

"Less adoptable," then up the red-penned

Bullet-board of next shelter dogs to undo—

I gushed, with a soft, tenacious heart:

“If you go on the red list, I'll put my 

Body in the door; I'll scoop you up

And take you home. My love for

You means now-and-evermore.”

Volunteers weren't allowed to say

'Killed'; it was “The humane ending

Of an animal's life,” and I wrinkle-

Faced at this—I couldn't imagine

Kindness in a needle's arresting kiss.

But next week you were homed. So I

Leaned into strange fur again: over

And over, eye after brilliant eye.

Half we found homes for; half—

Still wander back, dark forms in my...

Maybe fifty dogs, from a thousand or more,

I loved so much that my heart

Started changing: laughing and kissing,

smelling the green and scooping

The warm—instead of fearing its rearranging.

Once my heart rounded its own back—

And, like the moon, could be bright

And black at once—then its love

Tallied nothing but now-and-here,

and all and with...'til it's done.