A Dog Who Ate a Pond Lily

Tired of being my dog, and with grave anger

That there were only ivory bones to eat,

He left me for the pond, filled with a hunger,

Half memory, for some immaculate meat

To lay on his bright tongue-I saw him linger,

Fastidiously nose the shimmering heat,

And, as if suddenly grown brisker, younger,

Snap up a lily, living, flushed and sweet.

Like one frail sound the summer, softly muted,

Buzzed in his silky ear. A long, long while

He stood in reeds and godlike trance fast-rooted.

The taste of lotos made him strangely smile-

No more my humble dog, sad-eyed, four-footed,

He was Anubis wading in the Nile.