Ode to Joe

Read This First!

Most people don't understand my typical reaction towards death. Even after you READ THIS explanation you likely still won't understand, but it's the best I can do for now.

Never Separated Since Birth

Joe died last night. Sharon & the kids found him this morning. They cried. Susanna kept running over to her brother and sniffing & nudging him. He was only one and a half years old. The only time they'd been apart since birth was when the vet ``fixed'' them (they didn't think they'd been broken!)

So, naturally, being me, I write some haikus. I was thinking of talk.bizarre, of course, but the Muse slipped in, anyway. Judge for yourself.

[I was going to wait a long time before I showed these to Sharon and the kids, but Josiah found them right away, and they all seemed to like them.]

Hey, Joe! Here, boy!
Why do you just lay there like
A rock in the sun?

Joe is resting now.
He doesn't eat much, either.
How come? He's dead, Jim.

Black & tan shepherd.
Now he guards the River Styx
And we don't know why.

Susanna's so sad.
Her brother won't play with her -
Why is he so stiff?

It's a Guy Thing

Sharon, of course, cried a little - it's only been 2 years since we buried Bug. Esther, 11, cried her heart out. She did the same when a mother & baby goat down the road died. At 8, Josiah is a regular little Miles (be afraid - be very afraid). He cried a little bit, but not much. Over breakfast, he looked Sharon right in the eye and asked, seriously,

"Instead of burying Joe or cremating him, we could take him to one those places that does deer and they could skin him and we could eat the meat and keep the bones, and have him stuffed and mounted!"
"No."
"Why not"
"Just ... no."

Last updated: 11 June 1997

Miles O'Neal <roadkills.r.us@XYZZY.gmail.com> [remove the "XYZZY." to make things work!] c/o RNN / 1705 Oak Forest Dr / Round Rock, TX / 78681-1514