Who will feed my dog,

when I leave this world?

Who will make a home for three donkeys,

used to carrots

and apples and oat cookies

if they bray and blink?

Who will feed my barn cats,

when I leave this world?,

though one of them walks

on three paws,

and loves fresh scallops?

I have found someone,

to feed my dog, she has a farm,

with a dozen sheep,

and 50 acres to roam,

and she is young, with a new

baby, she is beginning her life,

committed to the land,

wondrous woman.

She signed a letter,

today, promising me this:

When I leave this world,

she will come and pick up my dog,

and drive him straight to her farm,

and throw him over the fence,

near the sheep,

with her daughter,

and he will love his new home,

as much as the old one,

just as he did,

when he came.

I’ve got a big barn,

she said, I could use some donkeys,

to protect my sheep. I will make them

cookies, out of oats.

I can’t use another barn cat.

But my neighbor,

just lost her tabby to a truck.

Who will feed my dog?

when I leave this world?

I love him too much,

to send him over a bridge.