Each day as we descend to the water

I watch my dog’s little ritual.

Unlike her younger sibling,

Who races,

Madly splashing and bounding

Into the waves,

Heedless of hazards or temperature,

She walks out sedately, meditatively,

To where the wavelets kiss the granite shore,

Land becomes water,

To salute the lake

Drink it in,

And savour the sense of perfect belonging.

This will always be her spot.

Long after she is gone,

Long after I am gone,

The rock will remember,

And the lake will chant her name.