11 Dec 2014

Rising From the Ashes

You were dying, or so I thought
I had given you up for dead
I did not think you stood a chance
Given how much you had bled

Caught up was I with my thoughts
Trapped by my own assumptions
Planning how to bury your body
How to manage my son's emotions

I stayed not with your suffering
I stayed not with your present
I ran, I hid, I got really busy
To avoid that painful moment

I saw not your wounds as they were
I only saw harbingers of death
As my mind raced into the future
Towards the certainty it seeketh

I waited and waited for the news
I waited for you to die
I waited for closure before I gave
Myself the permission to cry

But you dear wolfy, furry beast
You just turned that all around
You just kept breathing in and out
And slowly your rhythm you found

As the days and nights went slowly by
You breathed, and breathed some more
And then you sat and then you walked
And my every assumption you tore

Soon I noticed from the corner of my eye
You were not dying yet
Soon you even started eating
Without the intervention of a vet

Before my thinking mind could register
You were back on the street again
Running, barking, and sunning yourself
With no more trace of pain

You rose from the ashes, just like that
A phoenix right on our street
Resurrected by mother nature herself
You race on your doggy feet

What can I learn from your story
And what can I unlearn as well
Perhaps to step outside my thoughts
And the gloomy stories they tell

If you had believed, like I had
That you were going to die
Would you have lived to see today
And chase these butterflies by?

While I was worrying in my head
You stayed gently with your present
Though lying in your pool of blood
You did justice to each moment

You did not die, you are thriving
I wish you many more sunny days
And I am inspired to step outside
My mind’s soothsaying ways

This poem is inspired by 'Growly' a street dog who lives on our street and who made an amazing recovery after surviving a series of brutal attacks by a gang of other street dogs. Growly's neck was gashed and he was lying in a pool of blood and everybody thought he was dying. However, Growly showed amazing strength and resilience as he gradually limped back to existence. Today he runs and plays again, as energetic and lively as any dog can be.


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