No One Came

Peter Mladinic

No one came for Bronson

And he was humanely euthanized

No one came and he was murdered

And his body was dumped

In a furnace and burned to ashes

Who had been a small brown dog

Was given a needle’s good night

Good riddance Bronson

Crossed the rainbow

He’s with all the other fur-babies

In heaven waiting for a kind touch

He’s out of the way

A solved problem a heap of ashes

To be swept away

He had a mouth that no longer

Has to be fed, eyes

That no longer see

A heart that beats no more

Sorry we couldn’t do more

Just the little it would have taken

To keep you alive

To get you out of a cage

In the shelter and into a home

Sorry we failed you murdered you

It doesn’t weigh on our conscience

We told ourselves the lie

You are in fur-baby heaven

Your tail wags, you are happy

You are fed and walked

And loved

When the needle went in

We whispered, Run free