"Mourning Abbey" Terri Lynn Cummings

"Abbey" Ink & Watercolor on Paper
By J. Artemus Gordon

Mourning Abbey

Terri Lynn Cummings

Too sentimental some say

Maudlin over the loss of a dog

eyes large and sharp

fur silver and gray

like stones of an ancient abbey

I say no one laments a moth

or a spider. Ants gather no tears

Flies don’t either. Turtles 

make the cut, sometimes cats

Dogs, almost always

She wasn’t my daughter

but dug a home in my heart

tender as a newborn. Without her

I am blind in the dark. Cannot 

shed the heavy coat of being human

Poet’s Notes: We adopted Abbey soon after our son died. She strayed into our lives and over ten years she patched the gaping hole torn in our hearts. When we lost Abbey to the same bleeding disorder that killed our son, we were overwhelmed on many levels. My husband and I knew the addition of another dog to our household would help--not to replace Abbey, but to help fill the new hole in our hearts.