Dogs are natural scavengers
They have the stomach for it
I remember Beth swallowed some
decaying squirrel whole
Its tail hanging out of her mouth
for the longest time
Nothing ever became of it
I always wondered where the deer went
when they died
The forest was always
a pantheistic land of wonder
As the snow tickled our noses
Lexi was nowhere to be found
I laughed it off and yelled for her
Then yelled and yelled
Then ran and abruptly stopped
Lexi tenderly edging toward the deer carcass
Shy even
Then the bump on the bridge of her nose appeared
A couple months later,
in an unusual spring heat
Lexi leaves the trail
With a straightforward earnestness
We walk an unfamiliar side–path
Cross an undiscovered stream
Another carcass prone to the sun
A vulture crouched in an adjacent tree
Impatient for our departure
The bump on her head reappeared at the top
Lexi was given two months to live
And, at that other river,
Her jaw too weak to grip
the large branches so much a part of her
This third carcass
Peaceful, laying amid the thorns
One does not begrudge one condemned to death
to take their fill of death
Not one lick of impropriety
We filled our days with walks
We denied ourselves none of our walks
We partook
Peace