taking my morning mini walk
back and forth across my second-floor deck
I savored the rippling lake
and the neighbor walking
his big brown boxer-mix by the shore

while the neighbor kept walking
doggie stopped
looked up at me and waved his joyous tail
instinctually I waved back warmly
doggie ran to me with mouth open
and tongue dripping

I stopped and looked down at her
our eyes and smiles and sign language communicating
until the neighbor who’d gotten home
surprised by his aloneness
finally returned to fetch his pet

reunited they bounded away
and I stood in stunned stillness
a flight above still
 slobbered with inter-species bonding
and grinning broadly from more
than a specious event

                                                                                           Dona Palmer 5/29/2022