Golden Retrievals - Mark Doty
Golden Retrievals - Mark Doty
Fetch? Balls and sticks capture my attention
seconds at a time. Catch? I don’t think so.
Bunny, tumbling leaf, a squirrel who’s—oh
joy—actually scared. Sniff the wind, then
I’m off again: muck, pond, ditch, residue
of any thrillingly dead thing. And you?
Either you’re sunk in the past, half our walk,
thinking of what you never can bring back,
or else you’re off in some fog concerning
—tomorrow, is that what you call it? My work:
to unsnare time’s warp (and woof!), retrieving,
my haze-headed friend, you. This shining bark,
a Zen master’s bronzy gong, calls you here,
entirely, now: bow-wow, bow-wow, bow-wow.
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I like Doty’s personification of the dog as a reminder to be present. The dog also appears to have a short attention span—jumping from excitement to excitement—but it works as a counterpoint to the human’s fixation on the past and future. Together, maybe the human can learn from the dog’s sage advice to be more in the moment.