The Entry of the Dogs into Valhalla
It’s like the show at Westminster,
Except that all are welcome:
The mutt, the stray, the bitch, the cur,
Whatever woes befell them.
Like gods they enter through the gates
Of Great Hall’s off-leash park
And there compare notes on their fates
And run and roll and bark.
All rivalries forgotten here,
All masters kind and wise,
Das Rheingold whistles in their ears
And sparkles in their eyes.
Some spiteful gods, in envy, plot
Low schemes against “the hounds.”
But that’s their problem. Plain old Spot
Holds Heaven’s higher ground.
Dan Campion is the author of Peter De Vries and Surrealism (Bucknell University Press) and coeditor of Walt Whitman: The Measure of His Song (Holy Cow! Press) and a contributor of poetry to many magazines, including Able Muse, Blue Unicorn, Ekphrasis, The Evansville Review, Light, Measure, The Midwest Quarterly, The North American Review, Poetry, Rolling Stone, Shenandoah, and Think. He lives in Iowa City, Iowa.