Beggar - Richard Dawson

She’s fast asleep at Woden’s feet

Whilst alms I seek from thronging fairfolk

As a whelp fast to the teat

She smote me then

We’ve ever since been shadows

Two beasts of one old soul

If you rely on the kindness of strangers

It helps to have a hound for a handmaid

Not only for the superior nose

Or companionship

Often people stop to talk with me

Having never seen before such a very beautiful snow-coloured collie

Working the fell — a most powerful eye

Part of the grass, fast as a lightning

Before the children were grown

They’d ride her like a pony

Through the nodding banners yesterday

She went in chase of a ship’s rat

At my wit’s end I finally located her

Under a whining bush, my poor old lady, seized by a fit

When the raiders came in their flaming carriages

She went running to her family

While I listened on, cowering behind a pile of logs

There’s no denying it

I sold my shoes so I could buy a chicken

A penance and a treat on her final day

Now she is gone I carry her down to the sea

And scream to the sinking stars

«Can you ever forgive me?»