Since I left the human race,
To its vanities and rude mistakes,
To its sad search for sweet good taste, and grace—
I learned what love is, and what it takes
To love—how love wants to look at a face
That has meaning and a truth to tell.
Humans are simpler dogs—a sentence has less nuance than a smell.
We are not barred from truth because of its truth
But because of the courage it takes to tell
The truth, without shame; shame knows us—and we know it well.
I loved you like a dog, and I miss your smell—
Wrong and shame are what I miss; everything I cannot tell.
