Author: Jeff Shapiro

My IQ is the same as my age…
It goes up one point every year…
Who’d ever believe I would reach an IQ of 14…
My butler’s IQ is 2 points lower.

Next year, maybe I’ll know the seasons…
For me, now is the season of leaky clouds…
I hear words and phrases I don’t understand…
I think they are from some book off some shelf.

It seems each morning like a carnival magician has been here…
I don’t know why he never leaves a note…
The circus shows roll in one after another…
It’s a wonder, there is seldom anyone in the audience.

For exercise, I like to take a stroll across the kitchen counter…
Hmmm! Corn bread freshly baked, but very hot…
My butler yells, “Was someone in my kitchen?”
“No,” I reply turning the corner in a full gallop…
My belly round and bouncing…
I told you he isn’t very smart!

Yep, you got it, I’m always awe-stricken…
My life gushes out like an inverted waterfall…
I can’t wait for my IQ to be 15…
Because then, I will know a little more.

I love you,

Annie

Not even the loudest thunder can wake me when I’m sleeping…
Nor witches nor demons or anything like that…
My dreams are like a photographer’s negatives…
Opaque, yet, glowing with light.

My butler’s waking touch is like little icy pricks…
Followed by goofy words, I can’t follow…
Then his voice becomes as clear as a Church bell…
Time to eat!

Today, I’m going for wide-eyed and perky…
Maybe I’ll hop about with the biting bugs…
Romping and playing wherever I roam…
Or perhaps, today, I’ll just blend in with the sunflowers.

Someone has to set an example…
Against the blind, ruthless destruction…
For those who are worried they may melt from the pale glowing sheets of mist…
Or for those living in a series of theaters.

So let’s swirl in figure eights across the lawn…
Our tails waving in the wind (tie a feather to your butt if you don’t have a tail…)
I will give you a magic lesson…
As I touch my nose to yours.

I love you,

Annie

I do no harm to anyone…
The sun comes and goes…
Each new day my paw prints are wiped from the surface of yesterday…
With a very pretty motion.

With the sun the gates swing open…
And then I am on my way into the blank blue canvas…
I call this wonderland.

So what if sometimes I confuse a goat for a cow…
Or a turnip for a potato (yuch!)…
Or powder puffs for Pomeranians…
Or blue for gray and brown for green.

Did you know that there is really only one story here…
Everything else is simply words with no context…
So, turn your back on the permanent rebuke that has been following you…
And then we shall be on our way.

So what is this story I am talking about? It is…

A story of kindness…
A story of hope…
A story of believing…
A story of love.

I love you,

Annie

On the face of a leaf…
Soft mellow reflections…
Succulent glistening drops…
Oblivion to the confusion of people.

Beckoning me to look at the entire landscape…
Pointing to an unnamed creek…
Into the heart-like expanses…
Helping me understand the life around the sun.

Most of her poems are unfinished…
There are nowhere for their words to go…
Never to see the two far off seas…
She sits, witnessing the beautiful and the terrible.

Observing that most animals are happy…
That most names don’t properly fit…
The color of her eyes changing with the seasons…
Sometimes wrinkled with confusion.


On the face of a leaf…
Veins like long ago rivers…
Always returning…
To where she was, before she began.

I love you,

Annie

I have a new game
It’s called, “Make people jump…”

It goes like this…
I sneak across the ground like a whisper…
Identify a bare knee or ankle…
And simply touch my nose…
It is as easy as that!

Wow! There are so many funny reactions…
Some just start running…
Others show me their vertical leap…
It’s fun making them look like kangaroos (no offense kangaroos…)

This is why I love public settings…
Moving like a shadow…
The target in my crosshairs…
And then lock, load and fire!

Life is all our own making…
Have you ever tried entering from the other side of the door?
Fun, joy, and maybe a few practical jokes are waiting…
Because whether you know it or not…
Your life is too big for the sky.

If you don’t believe me, let me ask you a question…
How did get so high on this big mountain?
There has to be this thing called grace…
Breathe it in! Breathe it in!
Fresh as the mountain air.

Shhh! Another target up ahead…
The fool is barelegged…
The air feels like it has paused and is just waiting…
And then I pounce.

I love you,

Annie

Sometimes my paws look like starfish…
Feeling the connection with the sea…
The waves pounding at my heart…
Bringing me closer to heaven.

Sometimes I feel like I was born from this world…
Regions of blue stretching in all directions…
So powerful in a brand new way…
Each day as sure as the tides.

Can you feel it?
That essential grandeur?
You may think that it is rough and chancy here…
But it’s not.

In this place we can give ourselves alluring new names…
Better pick one, before one is picked for you…
For myself, I’m going to choose Hope…
Now it’s your turn.

Here, the white ghosts vanish beneath the sun…
We are insulated from the storms…
It is as tasty as a sugarplum…
All of life, leaning in our direction.

I love you,

Annie

In the shade of the fallen tree…
My ears ring with quiet…
I feel like a hawk returning to the sky…
Or, as if once again, I am a 1 year old pup.

Watching nature govern itself…
Leaves spread like blackberry jam…
Nature’s sounds resolving into a language of their own…
In this feeling, I endure forever.

There are no hands, ticking time forward…
No suspicion, staring at me with so many eyes…
Here is a time for laughter…
Here is a time for joy.

Ha! So you are willing to sit with me!
Did I soothe you out of your coil?
Can you stop judging your neighbors?
Because here, there are no frowns.

In the shade of the fallen tree…
The good becomes common…
Gorgeous as a rainbow…
Handsome and harmless.

I love you,

Annie

Why do frogs have to shout?
Why is a heron’s eyes green?
Why do I pee on dead flowers hoping for them to bloom?
Each action expressing the clearest innocence…

My life is slowly easing into legend…
Like a distant shape traveling through the fog…
No it hasn’t been all ribbons and grace…
But, still, there is a natural beauty in it all…

I’m so thankful for you to walk this journey with me…
In many ways you are my wonder-friend…
You replace that deep loneliness…
Us, being so weathered and real.

I’m drawn over and over to the warm place of our friendship…
It is where I feel the most safe…
Sure life is 99% boring and 1% terror…
But, here with you, I am always at peace.

To me, it all has the feeling of tender flowers…
It is beautiful, even to the little mortal creatures…
So, let’s change the subject of our monologue..
This beautiful life, may be our one singular opportunity.

I love you,

Annie

While I was napping my butler gave me a doo de doo…
Two large poofs…
One on my neck and one on my tail…
What’s a pup to do with a doo de doo?

Now I feel like I’m covered in feathers…
Like an agitated wave…
My reception to the wild should be very interesting…
But I can always hang out with the neighborhood children.

Wearily, I move outside step by step…
My ears twiggling sweetly…
Tiptoeing my paws on the narrow plank…
I stand alone to face the others.

To my surprise no one even pays attention…
I guess the change did me good…
I was kind of reached my limit of grays and browns…
I began to feel like the colors of wings!

Oh, so much time spent on what other pup’s are thinking…
When they are not really thinking at all…
I am only a small pup in the midst of it all…
Oh no! My butlers is coming back with ribbons!

I love you,

Annie

I touch my nose to yours…
Following the motion of your eyes…
Each reflecting a different view…
And a wide sea within.

The sea, She carries her own light…
Her reflection in the sand and seashells…
Come on, we can track Her love down the beach…
It smells more like a beginning than an end.

Can you feel the earth’s roundness beneath your feet?
Making them light as a whisper…
Her shores like poured porcelain…
Her estuaries like rivers of gold.

This is all freely given…
All we have to do is stop fixating on the road ahead…
Each view reflecting a different miracle…
But to see them clearly you need to become one with the heavens…
Because miracles are a packaged deal.

Sometime long ago our circuits must have shorted…
Life becoming only a winter chill…
But the answer has always been right in front of us…
Embedded in the seashells.

I love you,

Annie