This is a fairly strange poem on first reading. Someone who claimed to be clairvoyant once told me that, when a wild animal dies, it dissolves back into the “animal group soul”. But an animal tamed by humans develops a soul that survives death in a more individual form. So, I wrote this poem to explore that metaphorically. What the poem is really about is how people, animals and things can genuinely live on in our memory.
The connections we make with dogs and cats
Are born from a host of this and thats
The thisses are kisses
The cats catch the fishes
And chase all the mice and the rats.
The dogs find our eyes with their eyes
Their tails wag with whoops of surprise
They’re loyal to the Royal
And they dig up the soil
But the soul of a dog never dies
When the essence of us lingers long
And realises its own unique song
Our pets come to greet us
For death can’t defeat us
Bounding in flight
Cats and Dogs of pure light
Our journey with them carries on.
