The Old Dog Poem by Richard J.P. O'Grady

Calcium carbonate in the water
Casts clouds across brown eyes
Which gaze at me, with far off air
Not sorrowful, soon not there.

Clicking nails, like rattling teeth
In lifeless head, long gone,
Pad here, then there, on lonely search,
A decade long patrol.

He knows it too. I'm sure.
He feels, the cliched sands run out,
For him, his engines running down
His well of life runs dry.

Where once was energy,
Sunshine, life, a bundling,
Scampering fun. Now just a lonely,
Padding form. Watching, quite forlorn.

How will we cope when once he's gone?
How will the nighttime feel,
Without his nails clicking by,
Commanding spirits lie.

Perhaps we'll hear on ghostly nights
The soughing breeze waft by,
Fluttering leaves, a bended branch,
And rattling nails trot by.