Today, I remembered you differently;
Not like I always do,
A spade beating out what is left
In your collapsing lungs—
An act of mercy.
Today, I remembered
Your milk white fur
And the twin mountain ranges
That ran across your back–
Traces of a distant
Rhodesian Ridgeback ancestor–
The ridges
In which your fury resided
But now that you’re here,
This way,
I have made the same mistake again,
Wishing you into existence,
A fool that I am,
While I have you in a place
Where death can’t reach you.
Tjizembua Tjikuzu is a writer and poet from Aminuis, Namibia. He lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He is an Adjunct Professor in English at Rutgers University and Rowan University in New Jersey.