Rover Waits

Rover waits

And cars go by

Rover waits

And Rover waits

Rover sees the lid is up

Rover’s been good

Rover’s been very good

Rover gets treats

Rover gets a pet

He’s the pet

And he gets petted

He’s the noun and the verb

And he waits

The verb is wait

To wait

He waits

Rover waits

Rover scratches behind his ear

The sun becomes obscured

By a semi-sweet cloud

Of possible rain

Rover is thirsty

And the water bowl is full

But across the room

Is away from the window

And Rover wants to wait

So Rover waits

Rover wants to know the time

But Rover doesn’t understand time

How to tell it

Or what it is

Rover understands that there are moments

And moments pass

And if enough moments pass

Things begin to look different

The grey in the air

Becomes silver

Hair’s the same way

And the color of skin

And the tops of counters

Cloth and clothes

And grass

Rover waits for permission

To stop waiting

But the only thing moving

Is the fridge

Which inches forward

A bit every day

Rover used to bark about that

But Ken and Angie thought

He was upset about a squirrel

And begged him to calm down

So finally he just gave up

And made it his mission

To keep an ever-present eye

On the sneaky fridge

A squirrel?

Why would he be interested

In a squirrel?

Squirrels don’t bother him

Hunger doesn’t bother him

Thirst doesn’t bother him

Music in the den doesn’t bother him

Unless it’s opera

And it’s usually opera

But when it’s not opera

It doesn’t bother him

Rover waits for a call to pull up

Instead of go by

Rover waits for the turn of a key

Footsteps on the walk

Laughter in the driveway

The mail slot being checked

Rover waits

For something to happen
And nothing will

Until it does

Rover finds the moment

When nothing is happening

And tries to hold onto it

So that when something does happen

He can spin and spin

And bark

And yelp

And make the most of it

The most of the moment

That hasn’t arrived yet

He sees it

Like he can see the future

If he understood the future

Or the past

And not just

The moment

Rover waits

And chews on

The shoe he stole

From Angie’s closet

Something will happen soon

He knows it will

And when it does

He’ll be ready

The waiting

The waiting makes you ready

And the waiting

Is something

He understands