Animal

A puppy with a black-and-white tail bounces around in the park grass,
Chasing its shadow wildly, its attention oblivious to the chaotic world going by.
I sit at a park bench, the ghosts of my failures wandering between the trees,
Faces change with the breeze, laughter changes to sorrow, sometimes to unexpected pleas,
And this little animal, this incidental hiccup, this accident of worldly fate
Is chasing its tail in the sunshine, barking so happily to be alive with the trees and the flowers blossoming faster than the bees can perpetuate,
While all the dangers of humanity swirling around it on the roads and the sidewalks and in the sky,
But the power of its attention on the joy of being alive,
Overcomes the hate, the bitterness, the pain of just trying to survive,
And I am left at my park bench, wrestling with the forest shadows,
While that little puppy leads the souls of the innocent and the forgiven
Far beyond my worldly prison, free of my self-constructed gallows, diving into the bright blue sky.