The Best Place to Bury a Dog

In loving memory of my beloved Heidi Sept 1997 to October 2010

Ben Hur Lampman

THE BEST PLACE TO BURY A DOG

If a dog be well-remembered, if sometimes she leaps through your
dreams, full as life, eyes kindling, questing, asking, laughing,
yearning….

It matters not at all where that dog sleeps, at long
last, at least

On a hill where the wind is unrebuked and the trees are roaring, or beside a stream she knew in puppy hood, or somewhere in the flatness of pasture, where most exhilarating cattle graze, it is all one to the dog, and all one to you and nothing is gained and nothing is lost….if the memory lives.

Nevertheless, there is one place to bury a dog, best of all.

If you bury your friend in this spot, she will come to you when you
call…

Come to you over the grim, dim frontiers of death, and down
the well-remembered path to be by your side again. Though you call many dogs to heel, they shall not growl at her or resent her coming, for she is yours and she belongs here.

People may scoff at you, those who see no lightest blade of grass bent by her footfall,
those who hear no whisper pitched too fine for mere audition, those who may have never really had a dog.

Smile at them, for you know something that is unaware to them. And which is worth keeping…

The one best place to bury a dog is in your heart

“And he will raise her up on eagles’ wings

Bear her on the breath of dawn

Make her to shine like the sun

And hold her in the palm of his hand”