Advice From Sparky

     This Poetry Writing homework was written on the close of an awful day, and I was missing my dog Sunny. So I read Wilson Rawls' Where the Red Fern Grows, and that helped. This poem was written to a master from his loyal now-dead scruffy beagle Sparky. The name came from recently reading a biography of Charles Schulz, and the brightish tone in the last stanza was probably influenced by studying a lot of Edgar Guest.

Yeah, I’m not here any longer,

but you just found this letter

and I never chewed up much

poetry as a pup, so I reckon

I can try it now.

If I did my job right, you’re stronger

now than you were then, better

able to handle stress and such.

Sure, you still freak out for a second

when things leave you going “…Wow,”

but doesn’t everyone? Don’t squander

these moments you live, be a go-getter

and make sure to give a “Hang in there” touch

to those pals in need. A new chapter of life beckons.

Chase it, like I do my tail. I am a dog, anyhow.