The puppy that hadn't known what winter was

The puppy who hadn’t known what winter was!

Malvika,Cluny Convent,High School


The dead puppy lay on the pavement
A black, shiny patch against an ashen background
Flies buzzed purposefully around its tranquil, almost wise countenance
Never mind how repulsive the passers-by found
The uncombed, mangy mongrel with its face half-buried in the coarse, sun-drenched sand.
Vermin had eaten through the glossy, dishevelled fur that had shimmered uncertainly
In the blazing, almost insolent resplendence of the sun.
For the puppy hadn’t known what winter was.
Had human hands ever run their fingers over its thin, noble face?
And if they had, where were those hands now?
The puppy had once pranced jauntily across the street
With a pilfered Marie biscuit clenched tightly between its jaws,
Narrowly missing being mown down by the sputtering Tongas, whirring autos,
Humming scooters and the ever moving, intricate maze of pedestrians.
The children from the school, who had fed him with their left over lunches and had carried him in their soft hands,
Unmindful of his flea – ridden fur and wet, slobbering tongue –
Where were they now?
Where they the same as those who now threw disgusted, scornful glances at his perfectly still, lifeless form?
Or were they the ones who pretended not to notice the dark, static cadaver that lay on the footpath?
His dry, crusty nose peeked out furtively from beneath the piles of rubble,
Crimson scars tore through his skin, exposing long strips of rotting flesh.
I said good-bye to the abandoned, long- forgotten puppy whom life had thrown away
Like a toddler discarding a toy that he had finished playing with
I swore that I wouldn’t forget him, and his image remained vivid and fresh in my mind for weeks afterward
Now all I can remember about him is that he had odd ears – one droopy and the other pointy
My memories of him are tucked away in an obscure corner of the archives of my reminiscences
I can’t say that I’ve done better than the others who have forgotten him,
Except perhaps I held on for a little longer that they did
Just a little longer.