Walk

You breathe ready

Snorts and fervent grunts

Rump smacks the floor thump

Tail beats an impatient cadence

On the dull door frame

Leather in my hand

Flat, warm, animal, binding

Click-clack

You pace, a yearling at the gate

Grousing like a hinge long neglected

Click-snap

Tether in my hand

Dingy doorknob in my hand

Cold release

A slam shakes the parting wall

And we are off

Like an arrow whistling

Or a hawk loosed for the kill

Off like Atalanta

Who never wanted doors or houses

You are all go

White feet flashing

Through nursemaided yards

Each miniature meadow

A verdant coffer

Bursting at its seams

You are all stop and go

Muzzle tip a passport to the surging world

One breath and all journeys

Are revealed to you

You glimpse the passage of the postman

And every roving stray

You know the deepest yearning

Of every fellow beast

I hold your leash

Close, a tourniquet

But you know

I’d really like to see you

As you were

When you were young

And prowled in packs

And pronounced

Your wailing compact

With the moon