Introducing the Farewell of Doppler Dog

This whimsical poem was written by the character of 'Sonny Man' - hitchhiker and 'professional beggar' - in Sweet Unpleasant Realities, my first book.

Doppler Dog

I am standing
Like so many times stood before this time
Standing on the shoulders of highways
Eclipsed but unchained
in motion and balance He rides the road
The honored guest of the loyal one who owns but does not enslave him
Good master Good master
A strange happy sound
A small dog will happily happy in the bright blue skyway of a midday dawn
Growing quickly
Sadder older bigger
Is he a good sized dog he is
All yellow with shadowy black around those ears
And mouth and eyes
He gladly bays not so sad at high noon setting
Gruff and old he grows no less free, though weaker he is it seems
        that
He is now all but gone
Voices shift to shake off red approaches twilight,
night already come, not concerned if he rides round and round again
or sings the last you'll hear him sing forever.
If only heard across the vacuum of distant stars' far distance,
happily happy gladly not concerned,
could there not be beings inclined to mirth who could not resist the push
      and pull
of Doppler Dog?
Ears - auroral curtains around his magnetic head...
he grins in the solar wind...

Then standing near the shoulders of hydrants,
his lot no better no easier than our own...
And who can say - what else?
After all, we had a hand in shaping his paw.
Though food for thought he can produce plenty,
Of sufficient intellect has Doppler Dog
to avoid unnecessary excess in thinking

Who will growl at his freedom?
Let that one bark at the moon.