Comfort Dog Finalist
by Deidra Greenleaf Allan © 2017
She has no words, only the warm container
of her body, the absorbency
of her soft fur. She pads through schools, hospitals,
shopping malls—scenes of massacre,
mayhem, bloodshed—lifting her brown eyes
to each one she passes and wagging her tail
as if to say, I’m here now, tell me, as she offers herself
for a pat, hug, fierce embrace, or simply a place
to rest one’s head. In this way, some small portion
of whatever weight each of them carries
is released and taken up by her, gladly
and without judgment,
as a sponge absorbs whatever spill it touches
or a chair settles into its burden
so that, through some inexplicable alchemy
and the transcendent grace of her kind,
their sorrow is rendered, for that brief moment,
almost bearable.
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Deidra Greenleaf Allan has been published in American Poetry Review, West Branch, Haibun Today, Umbrella, and other print and online magazines. Selected by Robert Hass as the 2001 Poet Laureate of Montgomery County (PA), she was recipient of a Leeway Emerging Artist Award as well as a finalist for a Pew Fellowship in Poetry. Visit her blogsite: dgreenleaf.wordpress.com
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Read this and the 60+ poems in 'The Best of Kindness 2017' available on Amazon.com or from our publisher's CreateSpace e-store: https://www.createspace.com/7018282
Above photo taken by Jan Keough
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Are there small or large gestures of kindness? How do we decide? The poets in this 60-poem collection ask and try to answer. Join poets from 30 states & a dozen countries on this journey.