A Man and His Dog

There was nothing special about the dog

His fur was a pale yellow, mangy and dirty

He wasn’t a puppy, ready to take on the world

And his ill manners couldn’t be attributed to young age 

But instead a poor upbringing and traumatic past

That sometimes made him act like a savage 

The man spent time abroad, fighting like a savage 

He saw himself in the old, beaten dog

The man had killed many people in the past 

And his soul felt heavy and dirty

The dog didn’t know any of this, despite his old age 

He only knew that they were both afraid of the world 

At first, they lived in their own separate worlds

The man tried washing the dog, as his fur was savage 

Sometimes they played in the yard, like children of a young age 

The relationship grew, and the man began to love the dog

They frolicked in the mud, got their paws dirty 

The dog began to trust the man despite his past

They often fought the past

The man remembered his time in the war, a different world 

He wanted to wash away the sins and the dirt

Sometimes, the dog bit and snapped savagely 

He remembered being a young dog

When his owners tied him up and left him outside to age

They both could feel their bodies age

Some of it naturally, some of it due to their pasts 

The man wished not to outlive his dog

For he was his only friend in this lonely world 

But the world is savage

It is not clean or pure, only dirty

And time took his dog because the world is dirty 

Underground where he would rot and age

No one knows why, but life is savage

And when his dog died, he waited for the pain to pass 

But it never did, cruel world

So he laid down beside his dog 

And placed his old head on the dirty ground, thinking of the past 

They would walk together through the world, despite how they aged

Because with a dog, you can beat anything savage