She broke on the pavement like a plaything lost and forgotten.

A year-old lab mix mutt with intelligent eyes and eager ears,

She was playing some kind of game, our screams factored in.

We egged her on even as the grey sedan bore down on her,

our cries interpreted as joy and laughter in the wind-faded rush

Of her pointed canine ears.  She probably expected a treat

to appear at the end of her sweeping run over this alien field of grass

And asphalt, but no treat could wake her when her run was done.

No tear, no cry, no hitched sobbing sigh could wake her

January 7, 2016