Jackson in Action
Laying on the bed
Under layers of blankets
Snoozling sweet sighs
Little Baby J
Happy birthday
From your people to you
Four years together today
Together we’ve made it through
Grown gone past T-bone
Groaning under covers deep
Stacks under stacks of comfort
Dark days go away in sleep
Happy birthday
From your people to you
Four years together today
Together we’ll keep going through
You talk in ways the world is chatting with us all
A woofing huff, a slight nod, slow gestures drawn
Pleading jump, winking eyelash, just one way Nature speaks
In loyalty and love, communicating cross-species
Happy birthday
Jackson through and through
Four years together today
We got you.
I will ALWAYS argue an anthropocentric worldview ignoring the rights of ALL life on earth is the same dangerous hierarchical thinking that got us into this hot climate mess. To that end, yes, I am making the case that even this birthday (& adoption anniversary— coincidentally the same day) ode to our dog can be considered climate art. I had another concept for a different poem about fighting for a climate safe future against the types of health and environmental risks our pets will encounter more of in a warming world, layered under a Prince and the Pea parable. I’ll shelve that one for another time.
For background, we adopted Jackson (aka “Baby J” ) on the day he turned nine from a local organization that saved him from a kill shelter in NC, where in those before times he went by “T-bone.” Jackson is now living large in his best life, cared for by two queers in our one bedroom apartment high rise. So today we celebrate our thirteen year-old underdog, young-at heart, glown-up, mini-pinn pal. And all the ways he speaks and teaches us to listen to the world for what Nature needs: loyalty and love.
In loyalty and love,
Adam Powers