Kate LSY

“I love you.”
A murmur,
quiet like the wind,
whispers through my mind.

Patting Sunny’s head, 
her soft fur warm
against my calloused palm.

An admission,
never spoken out loud.
Not that it matters.

She’s a dog.
No difference between
a loving confession
nor an announcement
of needing to take a shit. 

But that isn’t why
I kept my silence.
Not because she cannot comprehend,
but because
I never thought I would.
Never thought I could. 

To love something that takes.
Knows only how to consume,
and never consciously give.

A losing equation.
For someone like me,
who counts gains and losses.
When she never learned math. 

And yet,
Somehow.
Here she is.
Wedged
into an already cramped heart.

And the emotions,
slip through the cracks,
rising to the surface,
at unguarded moments like this.

Even for someone like me.

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From Terms & Conditions May Apply, a collection of poems.
“Someone like me” — after a year of dog ownership