Two Dogs Fighting

by Sherri Tesler
(Pleasantville, NJ, USA)

Once there were two dogs fighting in the street,
over a piece of meat.
Snapping, snarling and barking so loud
they attracted a crowd.
Cars and trucks were forced to stop,
someone called the cops.
Traffic was backed up a mile or two,
the cops couldn’t get through.

A little girl emerged from the crowd and shouted,
“Harry, Penelope heel, sit down.”
The dogs paid no attention and continued to fight.
Those dogs would have fought through the night.
Forgotten was the meat.
It stood alone in the street.

Perched atop a telephone pole sat an old black crow.
Seeing the delectable morsel, he swooped down
and grabbed it with his beak.
As he started to fly away with his prize
a hairy paw swatted him out of the air.
Tom the cat was hungry and grabbed the meat.
Old crow fell dead to the street.
The triumphant cat claimed his reward from
the dead bird’s beak.

The dogs stopped fighting, looked at the cat,
looked at each other and looked back.
“That cat is stealing our meat,”
and together chased him down the street.
With the meat clutched tightly between his teeth
the cat escaped by climbing a tree.

The little girl found her dogs laying at the base of the tree.
She scolded them for being selfish and
not sharing their food.
Harry and Penelope were ashamed of what they had done
and asked her forgiveness.
She smiled and said, “let’s go home,” and kissed both on the head.

What happened to the cat? He disturbed a Blue Jays nest.
Mother bird attacked that cat, pecking at his eyes and head.
She chased him down to the ground and
he never saw the meat again.