Make these dogs happy

Abe V Rotor

Pastel drawing by Anna Christina R Rotor, circa 2000

Make these dogs happy, I once asked a child,

with pencil drew a pair of bone,

which made a change in the dogs' expression,

their tails and eyes had shown.

Another child drew a house in gaily colors;

with arch door and window;

and he wrote the name of the new owner,

but King slept on its shadow.

Another child drew a tree with a bird's nest

which is happier, dog or bird?

He is referee, matchmaker, guardian,

he plays the role of the third.

Up front a child made familiar drawings:

playthings for dog and child.

happiness is in playing the same game
with the master though how wild.  

At the back, a little girl kept drawing;

shy, she hid her work but I saw.

Why she had unchained the dogs! Freedom!

she wrote with knitted brow.

Here I saw two views, domestic and wild -

which is sad, which is happy?

How little I know of the lesson I ought to know,
of dogs in the wild and free.  ~