Office Collage

I have an office at the University
where I teach.
I don’t like it very much,
it’s usually too hot for me.
I have to go there regularly to fill
the accessibility requirement
of my job.
On the wall in front of my desk
there is a photo-collage of dogs
that have now all passed away.
My wife gave it to me one Christmas
many years ago, when the dogs,
captured by her camera,
were still very much alive.
I remember how much I enjoyed that
collage at the time.
I loved those dogs a lot.
I like the pictures still,
but in a very different way.
From time to time now, I look into those photos
in the same way I sometimes stare out my window
and muse for a while.
A sad sweetness washes over me
that’s comfortable and familiar
and I recall those dog-anilities.
Lately, I’ve also begun to notice
the man that is in some of those pictures, too.
Of course, it’s me, and though the dogs are all gone,
and there is no longer any brown left in my hair,
very little has changed and I don’t know if
that is good or bad.