A Stick

I saw a dog in 2015 and wrote a poem

Photo by K. Mitch Hodge

He danced with happiness
mouthing the long stick with more eager affection 
than ever had paid his scepter an Emperor

No other reason for the joy exclaimed
by every prance and ceaseless swing of tail 
than that of being alive
of moving
of being with one unremittingly loved
and of having
A stick