I’d like to thank everyone who showed such kindness, compassion and sympathy in their condolences at the loss of my faithful canine companion. Ms. Yoplait passed peacefully Sunday morning, December 10. She was well loved by many and will be sorely missed. Farewell, dear friend, run heaven’s hills in peace. Yoplait, this poem is for you.
Lost Friends
I’ve lost my friend, the plaintive cry came to me over the phone.
My faithful old companion, we shared life, and hearth, and home.
She rode with me and was always near, my guardian through the years.
Some think me a fool to hurt this way, to cry and shed such tears.
And the loneliness, like birds of prey, tear at my very soul.
And leaves my heart to face the storm, like ships cast upon the shoal.
Good dogs and horses, like good friends, we take for granted every day.
Not knowing just how deep the hurt comes when they pass away.
The many days we worked and played, good partners tossed through life’s travails.
Each depending on the others’ strengths, companionship that never fails.
And some folks just don’t understand the bonds we build with these.
To creatures who are part of us, never thinking that they’ll leave.
But life’s range we ride is not always smooth, the trails are far from straight.
With canyons shrouded in the fog of time, the mysteries of fate.
The seasonal procession that marks our earth bound span
Revolves much faster for both horse and dogs than it does for normal man.
So we are left to ponder fate, just how we come to love them so.
How the void can be so deep when it comes their time to go.
And though we’ll not forget them, they’ll be others down the line.
Their spirits will stay on with us, no more the slave of time.
Then at sunset along the valley’s rim, when pastel colors rose and gold
Reminds us that the body flags, but our spirits don’t grow old.
We’ll think of days we’ve ridden out astride the backs of our great friends
With never thoughts of spills or death, or of how the trail might end.
But end they must, for earth revolves, each spin brings us closer to the day
Of reckoning with talley sheets, rewards and debts to pay.
So now the magnitude of it all, the only truth life really holds.
Burns deep the heart when time runs out and sears the very soul.
For best friends we made along the way, when following our life’s course.
Might just be a special dog we’ve known, or our favorite saddle horse.
John P. Doran