Love That Dog

It was Saturday, and I was with Miriam at SM North Edsa. She was having her laptop fixed and I tagged along. We happened to pass by the second floor of the main mall, where there happened to be a "book sale" corner selling books(I'm not referring to Booksale though, which happened to sell 20-peso books. I browsed the shelves and found Sharon Creech's Love That Dog. I immediately bought it. First, because Creech is a Newberry Medal Awardee, second, because I like children's books and third, because I liked the cover. However, I was disappointed when I browsed through the first few pages; the first page featured a poem - a children's poem. So did the second page and the third. I don't really enjoy poetry much, and I didn't feel like going through "Humpty Dumpty stuff" again. Good thing I didn't give up right away, because embedded within those kiddie poems is a poignant story. Sharon Creech did deserve that Newberry Medal, my 20-pesos was more than worth it :3 Here is one poem from the book:

MY SKY

We were outside in the street
me and some other kids
kicking the ball
before dinner
and Sky was
chasing chasing chasing
with his feet going
every which way
and his tail
wag-wag-wagging
and his mouth
slob-slob-slobbering
and he was
all over the place
smiling and wagging
and slobbering
and making
us laugh
and my dad
came walking up the street
he was way down there
near the end
I could see him
after he got off the bus
and he was walk-walk-walking
and I saw him wave
and he called out
"Hey there, son!"
and so I didn't see
the car
coming from the other way
until someone else -
one of the big kids -
called out
"Car!"
and I turned around
and saw a
blue car blue car
splattered with mud
speeding down the road

And I saw Sky
going after the ball
wag-wag-wagging
his tail
and I called him
"Sky! Sky!"
and he turned his
head
but it was too late
because the
blue car blue car
splattered with mud
hit Sky
thud thud thud
and kept on going
in such a hurry
so fast
so many miles to go
it couldn't even stop
and
Sky
was just there
in the road
lying on his side
with his legs bent funny
and his side heaving
and he looked up at me
and I said
"Sky! Sky! Sky!"
and then my dad
was there
and he lifted Sky
out of the road
and laid him on the grass
and
Sky
closed his eyes
and
he
never
opened
them
again
ever.