Sunshine is Dogshine

And other poems by Lawrence “Mack in Texas” Hall

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Sunshine is Dogshine

 “Be prepared. A dog is adorable and noble. / A dog is a true and loving friend. A dog / Is also a hedonist.”  -Mary Oliver, “The Wicked Smile” 

My little dogs pause at the kitchen door
But after tentatively testing the air
Run wild into the sunlit of a rare warm day
Leaping across the long-dead summer grass 

They tumble and roll, and loll with their tummies up
For each little sunbeam is a doggie-kiss
To be cherished against the next arctic front
When the sleeting wind rattles the window panes 

My little dogs scratch at the kitchen door
Sunshine is dogshine

But now they want a doggie-nosh and a nap

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A Lucky Dachshund’s Foot 

Luna-Dog sat with a stick in her jaws
The sort of thing a little dachshund gnaws
(chewing everything is one of a puppy’s laws)
But a look in her eyes gave me some pause –

It wasn’t a stick; it was one of a bunny’s paws!

Yuck.

Time for church.

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Weary with Dachshunds

Cf. Shakespeare, Sonnet 27

With an improving book I go to bed
(as P. G. Wodehouse said)
And two improving dachshunds on my pillow
(as Wodehouse almost said)
They then begin their journey at my head
Wriggling down to my feet and back again

They slurple messily from my bedside glass
And crumple up my copy of Hercule Poirot
Neither slows: they lick my nose, they tickle my toes
And will they finally doze? Nobody knows!

But

When comes the midnight moon, then all in a cuddly heap
Their little doggie noses snuffle at last in sleep

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The Cosmic Inertia of a Six-Pound Dachshund

 Why is the resistance factor
In shifting a six-pound dachshund
Who does not want to be shifted
Greater than that of tons of iron?

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For Booger-Dog of Happy Memory

And for his pet human Max 

“The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog.” -George Graham Vest

His fuzzy little bed is empty today
His dinner is untasted, his water bowl full
Awaiting his ungentlemanly slurps
And his favorite toy seems lonely and lost

He will not claim space on my pillow tonight
Nor chase dream rabbits while cuddling with me
Nor lick my nose to wake me up at…
(Geez, Booger, do you know what time it is!?)
Leaping and barking to be allowed outside

He will not bound into the kitchen at dawn
Happily barking his joy unto God
Circling and snuffling for his breakfast treat
A bit of bacon or egg from a loving hand

Because his brave little soul has flown
To wait for me at the foot of that glorious Throne

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A Treatise on the Burrowing Habits of Dachshunds

A dachshund will burrow under the garden fence
For every dachshund thinks she is a wolf
A fearsome apex predator with a squeaky toy –
This is in the nature of dachshunds

A dachshund will burrow into your tightly-closed hand
Nosing out the doggie treat you have hidden there
A fearsome apex predator and omnivore –
This is in the nature of dachshunds

A dachshund bill burrow into your end-of-day lap
Watching both the television and the cats
A fearsome apex predator drooling on your book –
This is in the nature of dachshunds

A dachshund will burrow, borrow, beg, and bark
And in her foreshadowing of that better World to come
A dachshund will burrow deeply into your heart –
And love you forever 

This is in the nature of dachshunds

And of you