The Walk

The lamp by the window emits a soft light
To guide your steps home in the darkness of night.
The walk through the woods led to our usual place
Where we would sit and enjoy all the free space.
Quietly watching the clouds in the sky
Twas then that you noticed a critter close by.
You charged and you chased the critter from me
In spite of my calls and my desperate pleas.
I tried to follow but couldn’t keep the pace
Of a dog at full speed in heat of a chase.
Exhausted I stopped and cried desperately
Watching you go till I could no longer see.
Calling and calling till I lost my voice
Then slowly walked home with no longer a choice.
My jacket I left in hopes you’d come back and stay
For it marked the spot where I’d return the next day.
For days I returned the jacket still in place,
So desperate I was just to see your sweet face.
It’s been two weeks and my hearts sinking low,
The thoughts in my head such horrors it shows.
As I walk each day to our special place
Memories return and my heart starts to race.
My jacket is gone now you’ll never find
A place to wait for me, my search is now blind.
Any hope now is gone so I turn tearfully,
The long walk back home I barely can see.
I walk in the yard and I can’t help but shout
For what my eyes see there is not a doubt!
Sitting on the porch just as proud as can be
My jacket in his mouth he brought back to me.
Tail wagging fiercely and soft whines of joy
Are music to my ears from my precious boy!
Tears of joy shed could have easily caused a flood
As I hugged him so tight his coat covered in mud.
My prayers have been answered, he’s back home with me,
A second chance given now on lead he’ll always be!
Kathy Henderson
6 - 1999

---

The Storm

The weather outside is rainy and cold
The wind howling from a storm so bold.
I remember how scared you used to be,
Under my bed is where you would flee.
A little ball of fluff that trembled so hard
As the sound of thunder your world would jar.
You could find no comfort, not even in my lap
As you feared for your life when lightening zapped.
You couldn’t understand tho I tried to explain
You were safe in the house but your fear remained.
I don’t know what happened to cause such deep fear
In a little dog so happy until storms would appear.
As this storm rages a tear comes to my eye
For beneath all the turmoil is where you now lie.
Perhaps the earth that covers your head
Will serve the same purpose, as did my bed.
It tears at my soul and rips at my heart
To think of you scared, alone in the dark.
I know in my heart you’re safe and sound
But I also know you’re there in the ground.
Its guilt I feel of failing, you see,
To comfort a soul that trusted in me.
As the storm rages your image I see
Racing to my bed its fury to flee.
The image of you in the ground where you lie
Brings the pain of your fears and tears to my eyes.
Fly high little one, above all life’s storms,
Hide in God’s hands where you’ll be safe and warm.
Kathy Henderson
4 - 1999

---

Times of Remembering

In my heart there is a place so empty and so still,
Void of feelings where once it was filled.
The happiness there replaced by the void
Of losing one whose love I so enjoyed.
Paw prints embedded deep in my soul,
Memories of which I will never let go.
Times of remembering have taken their claim,
Times being a mixture of laughter and pain.
Each day I awake a tear stings my eyes
For a bed that is empty, by my bed, by my side.
As I go through the day my mind does play tricks,
For I hear you behind me where on tile your nails clicked.
The phantom I hear resides in my mind
And brings back the pain I now claim as mine.
The space in my heart so empty, so still,
Will never again by another be filled.
The heart in itself an amazing thing
With pain in its hold still with other’s can sing.
Times of remembering can be kind if we allow
Then the pain in our hold simply softens somehow.
In pain we are lonely, to remember brings peace
For in memories lives love and our souls release.
Kathy Henderson
5 - 1999

---

Go to more poems