Tu deviens responsable pour toujours
de ce que tu as apprivoisé.
                —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Tame me—you whom I can never see—
——-each word I utter, each prayer I kneel for.

Here I am, pacing—now wrest from me
——-a new song to find its way to you.

If you called me into being with words, let me
——-call you into my being with these.

As my dog—so like my heart—has grown older,
——-more anxious in the raucous world: Hold me

The way I held him inside his shaking the first time
——-he was dropped into my arms when

After several minutes he exhaled into me
——-and I knew then I held his life.