you will not hear the children sing
or dance with them
guard their beds
and ease their sorrows
you will not sleep in the sun
or amble gently in the park
scratch at fleas
and bark at shadows
you will not run in the golden woods
or splash in cool waters
chase your tail
and make them laugh
they left you
behind
to die
and
like a good dog
you did
Pripyat – April 1992
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6 comments:
poor pooch.
When the city was evacuated, people were told they could not take their animals. Some ignored this. Others turned their animals loose. This piece refers to a mummified dog found curled up, as if asleep, on a bed in a locked apartment. Just one of many heartbreaking tales of Pripyat that continue to this day.
Ah, thanks Graeme - how poignant.
I'm ashamed to say I couldn't place the name Pripyat before - now I can - how easy it is to forget these things or push them from our minds. Since your post I've read some interesting stories from that time and too many very very sad stories.
My grandfather took my grandmother's horse to france in 1914 as well as his own so when he was killed there was nothing left to hold on to. The tragedies of war come in many forms and none more tragic than your story of the mummified dog. The poem conveys the emotion absolutely.
The emotional investment we have in animals is enormous, I suspect because there are no conditions attached. They like you ar they don't. What struck me most about this is that whilst you can explain to most other human beings, that dog (and all the other animals left behind) would not have known why. It still breaks me up.
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