Boy
Meets dog,
Meets “Psst”,
Meets dog’s attention,
Meets dog’s nose with hand,
Meets eager sniffing,
Meets tail-wagging,
Meets hand-licking,
Meets face-smothering,
Meets eager jumping,
Meets dog regularly – with food, water, love,
Meets surrounding observant dogs,
Meets overjoyed dogs daily,
Meets attention of co-residents,
Meets frowns,
Meets concerns of safety,
Meets gathered co-residents one day,
Meets with strong statements,
Meets courage to say, “You can’t stop me”,
Meets anger, protest, threats,
Yet meets dogs daily,
And meets scorn daily;
Then, doesn’t meet dogs one day, then two days, then a week,
Meets concern,
Meets furious search,
Then, meets one carcass, then two, then seven,
Meets horror, despair, agony,
Meets vet,
Meets analysis,
Meets report,
Meets report with horror, despair, agony: ‘Poisoning’,
Meets pleased co-residents,
Meets apartment broker…