The idea for this poem came to me one day when I stepped on the place where my dog Gandalf use to lie.

THE WARM

I use to wander through the house
The carpet cool neath my bare feet
While I pondered things undone
And planned for things I wished to do
I ‘d step upon a surface warm
Where my dog had lain.

It was the place to catch a nap
Or keep a watchful eye on me.
No matter what my thoughts were then
It was his loving form I saw
When stepping on the surface warm
Where my dog had lain.

No judgment did he put on me.
Without him at the opening door
My house is not a home to me.
Love was here in every room
Starting with the surface warm
Where my dog had lain.

What fate or kind divinity
Has him so briefly given me.
My years are long and dragging on.
His years were short and too soon gone.
The surface was no longer warm
Where my dog had lain.

I thought about the Rainbow Bridge
And hoped someday we’d meet again.
But walking through the empty house
I knew it not a time to be.
Today I felt the surface warm
Where my dog had lain.

James Finch August 07

They are not really gone, you know.

Jim from FL