Karla’s Sleeping Place Against The Wall Poem by Daleen Enslinstrydom

Self-sufficient and smug-faced she lays
watching her world.
Today she had been a naughty dog
but she only wanted to help
and is in trouble again.

The geranium was in her way
and on the place where she used to take her afternoon nap.
Why did her owner put the flowerpot right there?

When her owner does leave for work
she has got a plan
to move the flowerpot herself
but it’s much too heavy.
She asks Jackie to help her
but he is not willing
as he does not want to get in trouble too.

Then she gets a bright idea
that had worked before
and decides to pull out the dreaded flower,
to dig the soil out,
just to leave it right there to be found
and to make her owner angry enough
to take the flowerpot away.

She bites and pulls
and stems break and leaves bend
but eventually the geranium is out
and the backyard is a mess with soil everywhere.

Now she only has got to wait
until her owner comes home

“Oh no! Not again, ” she hears her owner crying out.
“Karla, why did you break my flowers again? ”

She looks out off the corner off her eye,
notices that her owner is carrying the flowerbox away
and she crawls back to her sleeping place against the wall.