Jojo - Dustin Vado

Smokestacks belch to the clouds
hanging over the lady
carrying her shivering chihuahua
so the ground doesn't pollute his paws.

It's like a scene from that movie,
the one with the happy ending,
blue skies, and themes of reunion
that well up a chest crying for home.

Dogs always look cuter on silver screens
where their nerves shake unnoticed
and the burns from the acid rain
are easily digitized to look like hearts.

This is not the movie I saw last year
when Jojo decided to go on walkabout
through the back gate carelessly left open,
never to return.

I put up lost dog signs a day late
but no one wanted to see that movie
because it was too sad.

He shakes in someone else’s arms now
barks at their friends
eats their treats

or died

run over by a 4-Runner driven by a teenager,
or used as bait in a pit bull fight.

Blockbusters for the smokestacks,
but just another B movie
for ambidextrous bystanders
calming their pets.

I’d like to think he is happy and fat,
but the blur of cars near the park
grinds the pavement
racing home to their dogs.