A Dog Named Stravinsky

growls with a ruff-ruff that hardly seems canine
                        so offbeat the rhythm!
Cosmopolitan dog!

He yowls with an under-ruff of Bach
                        & Tchaikovsky, percussive, inspiring,
 not abstract at all—
           
Stravinsky’s jumping & pleading,
                        tongue-wagging & leaping, short-furred
& feisty, an acrobat-artist

polyamorous dog—that wakens us, ruff-ruff,
                        each bright or grey morning
& don’t we need something to jostle &

push us, exhort & nose-nudge us
                        past complaining & lazy, slow-to-rise
& ungainly, the dozy & dawdling everyday moi