Bargaining

Found this in my local notepad. Including it now for completeness' sake.

Receding from us at the speed of time 
you are threatening to take with you certain memories 
I would rather have you leave behind in our care.
Take instead this blanket, redolent of your odor,
and this brush, with which I used too rarely to take
handfuls of your unused fur for the benefit of birds.
Here is a bone you never finished, and a ball just given
that would have been a better match for someone younger,
but kindly meant. Exchange for these clear recollection
of an autumn day when you cajoled me into chasing you
fruitlessly around the tall blue spruce to show me
clearly the advantage of four legs over two.
Give me back the memory of sitting at my peril
on the dawn dark kitchen floor with your black shadow
frantic to re-greet me and if necessary
bite my nose to say how much you loved and missed me.
Let me have to keep one summer walk 
along the sandy trail, with you nose-down 
until we reach the open sky and then turn home again.
You are gone no matter what I say,
but if you will permit these memories to stay
and not be lost along with you, I promise to be reconciled
to doing what is proper, and turn away.

April 2011