Mulatto

Their first family dog's name
was Buckley Vidal
and it was a strange dog
lingering alone near the springlit Weigela
sitting for hours
pondering its half full crescent moon shaped
watering bowl
and only growling lightly
when the neighborhood's fattest squirrel
happened to rummage past

but it was a family dog
and so much of the time
it sat with the family
or played with the children
chasing their tossed balls
or tugging at their socks
tied in knots or what have you

but there was one day
when the dog escaped
and what it did was stranger still
it searched round the block
until a fireplug was found
and it laid what it thought was a bone
at its base

it was so strange
the object
that it took for a bone
so unlikely a thing to confuse
yes it was a very strange thing
that Buckley Vidal the Mulatto family's dog
thought was a bone

and truth be told
it was only Jerome
who missed the dog
when it had passed
for he used the image
of a Weigela
on his stationary
but was fond nonetheless
of each and every one
of the Eudicots