My two dogs
Tied to a tree
By a ten-foot leash
Kept howling and whining for an hour
Till I let them off.
Now they are lying quietly on the grass
A few feet further from the tree
And they haven’t moved at all since I let them go.
Freedom may be
Only an idea
But it’s a matter of principle
Even to a dog.
Louis Dudek (Poetry in Motion series on TTC, 2004 – still looking for publication date)