Hunter and Ziggy

From Stealing Eternity, edited by Stewart Burnett, published in 2008. This poem was first published in North Shore magazine in 2005.

a rascally lab-shepherd
 and grumpy old cat
 didn’t much like each other,
 both bristled to share
 the same family,
 same house.

After the fire,
 finding them:
 curled up—
 for the first time
together—
 under the upstairs rug,

the cat who couldn’t
 swat death away,
 gathered into
 the dog’s clumsy paws.