Pain And Pleasure Poem by Jasbir Chatterjee

A couple walked by.
Yesterday too,
They had walked by.
They made it so obvious;
They were in love, going steady…
Had they been humans,
They would have been hand-in-hand…
I smiled to myself at the thought
And I kept walking ahead…
But something strange and mysterious
Made me turn…
My heart missed a beat.
I wasn't prepared
For what I saw…
A second later,
The dog was done,
Straightening up.
If only she knew what lay ahead…
The terrible labor pains,
Little yelping puppies,
Blackies and brownies…
Pushing and pulling at her breasts,
The pain of watching
Some of them in death,
Some because of hunger
Some because of disease,
And some under a fast car's wheels…
But then,
That's inevitable,
Life itself,
A bigger bitch herself.
With ferocious dogs of her own following her,
Forcing us
To stupidly seek
Pain in pleasure
And pleasure in pain…