I

When I was yea high we had a dog, a beagle

Named Merry Heart. She ate Red Heart

Dog food and was dumb. Never chained up,

In heat, she let every mongrel hump

Her and had eighteen litters of mutts.

You would think my father would prevent her

Or have her spayed, but he had a big heart like a

Valentine and thought she ought to be free

To do as she liked in those matters

Because he was. I understood. And even now,

At this end of the chain of my days,

When I doodle, I doodle, in red ink, red hearts.