to fight

humans have taken all that in us is good

twisted and mangled it for the sickness

in a part of the world called the 'hood

 

others of our race, but not our breed

are used as bait for in-training fights

like us, they go where the humans lead

 

but it's not their nature to lunge & bite

these gentle souls immersed in violence

must live their life in terror and fright

 

onto the blood spattered earth we tread

the meek and the innocent made mean

willing or no, to the brutal fracas we're led

 

and though we have been brave and strong

in the ring some of us will fail and fall

circled by a jeering, cheering, inhuman throng

 

this shouldn't be how we begin or end

remember us in the thoughts you keep,

and include us in the prayers you send

 

we were not meant to live this way

please help us anyway that you can

be our voices, for we don't have a say

 

dog fighting should be forever banned ...

 

(© Kathy Pippig Harris, 2007;

Author’s note:

“For Sluggo; In His hands, at The Bridge ...”)

*****

 

I would like to thank Kathy Pippig Harris for her kind permission to publish her poems and writings on my blog.