Tassel moved with us to the country and lived for one more year -- until old age overtook her (as it does us all). But 'Dog's Sleep' was written at the time, when she was still alive. And I guess it's talking about the futility of our compulsion to leave 'monuments' behind us -- whether the monuments be fame, business achievements, works of art, children, or good works -- for all such momuments will surely perish with time.

			Tassel sleeps on the floor
			her legs shivering slightly
			though it's not cold

			is someone recording all this?

			I don't mean these notes
			humans make notes
			then go away
			their libraries crumble
			pages eaten by acid
			tabula rasa
			look little dog
			don't count on humans

			but doesn't Earth itself
			record this stuff? she asks
			can't future dog-lovers work back
			sedimentary clues
			construct me at this moment
			know that I   Tassel   was here   just now
			shivering on your floor?

			old sleeper don't count on Earth's records
			a Vostock drill went through a mile of ice
			decoded the core reading temperatures
			a hundred millennia
			but never your shivers
 			the records are spotty

			Tassel blinks her good eye
			then the Universe will keep track
 			changed by my passage through it
			won't its particles stay?
			my story locked in their code?

			dear friend
			don't count on the Universe
			here today gone tomorrow
			when the stars burn out
			when galaxies evaporate
			when there's finally nothing once again
			what then for your record?

			then it's been badly arranged, snorts Tassel
			I'll keep track myself
			cramming an eternity of bones
			between now and next year
			and that's enough

.....................................Copyright © Rod Anderson 1989