each time the dog escaped
an unlatched bolt,
a forgotten front door
i blamed myself,
an owner too loose
with the world.
it took me until now
to understand
he was wiser
than i could imagine.
twelve years
of walking pavements together,
his sniffs and stops
a map
i could never read
a magnetic field
of sense.
this fugitive hound
would never step
into traffic,
no matter
how dark
my thinking
would become.
