Blackness Dashes Valuably

A friend of ours called Jeremiah

Was walking east on a street somewhat below 14th,

Thinking of how Washington was not the city it should be,

Of how poetry was seen too much as something else,

And of how body had fared ill in this world

Because it was too distant from something called mind—

When a black dog,

Lively and like a joyous poodle in blackness; and big,

Went bounding towards Jeremiah,

And then went by.

This lively blackness,

This blackness in affable liveliness,

In amiable speed,

Brought opposites together for Jeremiah

In a convincing and novel way.

Blackness with speed;

Amiable dog, with deep darkness;

Swift, friendly four feet, the color of slender coal—

If this did not make abyss and merriment one,

Dear bounding black dog,

Tell us what could.