The curate thinks you have no soul

The curate thinks you have no soul;

I know that he has none. But you,

Dear friend, whose solemn self-control,

In our foursquare familiar pew,

Was pattern to my youth - whose bark

Called me in summer dawns to rove -

Have you gone down into the dark

Where none is welcome - none may love?

I will not think those good brown eyes

Have spent their life of truth so soon;

But in some canine paradise

Your wraith, I know, rebukes the moon,

And quarters every plain and hill,

Seeking his master ... As for me,

This prayer at least the gods fulfill

That when I pass the flood and see

Old Charon by the Stygian coast

Take toll of all the shades who land,

Your little, faithful, barking ghost

May leap to lick my phantom hand.

 

(St. John Lucas (1879-1934))