Mulak Reader - For a Good Bird Dog Dying Young

I’m not a poet, nor do I ever aspire to be, but this is a poem written at a time of loss. Digging a hole in the backyard and putting a good five-year-old bird dog in the bottom of it is an experience I don’t wish on anyone. Sophie represented the very best example I’ve yet turned out of how a young dog might be thoroughly trained without having that training impact her desire to run and hunt. In retrospect, this seems to be more of a prayer than a poem.

For a Good Bird Dog Dying Young

Even on the day I picked you out of your litter

I knew that this day would come.

I just didn’t expect it so soon.

Housman would remind me that you will not live to wear your honors out,

And I’m told you had an owner that every dog would wish for.

Maybe so, maybe so.

Had we spent more seasons together

The moment might have come when I grew angry with you,

But that moment abides forever in our future,

And you took that future with you when you left. 

I find myself wishing, somehow, that you had been

A hardhead or a runaway or something worse,

Just so that some small part of me could be glad you’re gone.

Today, I want to believe that the time will come

When we’ll hunt together again.

I’ve always been a sucker for that Corey Ford story.

But I know now you were a gift—

A brief pleasure given into my life—

And I miss you more than anyone can know.

Steven Mulak

07/15/99

* * * * *

Home | Naming of Sawbuck Point | The Warning | The Corvis Addiction | Winter Dreams | The Cipher | Fisticuffs | The Compliment | Stop It | First Snow | Housman’s Dog | Wax and Wane | Winter | Wisdom | Branta Canadensis Northeaster | The End | The Fella in the Red Hat | Showers Heavy at Times | Meat Dog | Of Ringers and Leaners | Rudi-ka-Zudi | Mikes Dog | Adversaries | And Fishing Too | Bluebills on the East Wind | Brown Feathers from my Game Vest | Cycles | Daddy's Girl | Drumming Logs | Epilogue | For a Good Bird Dog Dying Young | High Tide in a Peasoup Fog | Good News Bad News and the Sportsmans Quiz | Just a Bit Longer | Just Mallards | Knuckleball | Motherhood (Sort Of) | Notes on Opening Day | Pretzel Logic | Secrets of Successful Bootwearing | September's Song | Stone Fences | Suzie | The Cutting Edge | The Latest New Spot | The Mousecatcher | The Poacher | The Sportsman's Lexicon of Sniglets | The Streak | The Tarnished RXP | The Thaw | Thunderbird | To Fetch a Bird | Wellfleet | Why?

This site was last updated 09/20/06