<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">The House Dog’s Grave </span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">I’ve changed my ways a little; I cannot now</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Run with you in the evenings along the shore,</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Except in a kind of dream; and you, if you dream a moment,</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">You see me there.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">So leave awhile the paw-marks on the front door</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Where I used to scratch to go out or in,</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">And you’d soon open; leave on the kitchen floor</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">The marks of my drinking pan.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">I cannot lie by your fire as I used to do</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">On the warm stone,</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Nor at the foot of your bed; no, all the night through</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">I lie alone.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">But your kind thought has laid me less than six feet</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Outside your window where firelight so often plays,</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">And where you sit to read–and I fear often grieving for me–</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Every night your lamplight lies on my place.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">You, man and woman, live so long, it is hard</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">To think of you ever dying</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">A little dog would get tired, living so long.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">I hope that when you are lying</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Under the ground like me your lives will appear</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">As good and joyful as mine.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">No, dear, that’s too much hope: you are not so well cared for</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">As I have been.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">And never have known the passionate undivided</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Fidelities that I knew.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">Your minds are perhaps too active, too many-sided. . . .</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">But to me you were true.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">You were never masters, but friends. I was your friend.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">I loved you well, and was loved. Deep love endures</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">To the end and far past the end. If this is my end,</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class="">I am not lonely. I am not afraid. I am still yours.</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38); min-height: 22px;" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""></span><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; color: rgb(38, 38, 38);" class=""><span style="font-kerning: none" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Robinson Jeffers</span></div></div></body></html>