Toby
pts aged 17
I was two years
old when you came to me,
You jumped
out of your box, straight onto my dad’s knee.
Everyone thought
it was funny as a cat lover he was not,
I sat mesmerised,
wondering what I’d got!
We shared so
many storms through all our years,
My dad used
to lock you out so I shed many tears.
I saw you huddled
over the road, hiding against a wall
I sneaked out
down the stairs, no one heard me call.
I still remember
when I was a girl, dressing you up in dolls clothes,
I'd push around
town in a pram, we ended up very well known.
There was the
day the train scared you, you took off out the pram,
I ran home
screaming my head off convinced I wouldn't see you again.
But all was
well as an hour or so, you appeared back at the door,
I made a promise
there and then, you'd be out in the pram no more.
Thankfully,
I began growing up, you were no longer a toy but a friend,
How could I
know many years later, that our friendship had to end?
Time went on
things changed and my dad was lost for all time,
I didn’t know,
couldn’t understand why he was no longer mine.
For you see,
he went to heaven so my mum had said,
However I knew
deep inside, I knew that he was dead!
And yet again,
time moved on, more changes yet again,
My elder siblings
flew the nest; they both went and got wed.
And then we
also left our place, the only place we’d known,
The place we’d
grown up all those years, the place that we called home.
And so you see
as time marched on, you were my stability,
It also seemed
that times were changing, nothing was the same for me.
You were always
there, you cared for me, my longest truest friend
I thought we’d
go on forever but we were heading towards the end.
The day came
you couldn’t eat, foam frothed from your mouth,
Mum sat trying,
no begging as she crumpled to the ground.
I had to take
you to the vet; I couldn’t believe what I was told
You had a tumour,
why didn’t we notice and I was hurried out the door.
I sat for hours
out on the fields and cried for all my worth
I couldn’t
believe my only friend was no longer on this earth.
I headed home,
I told my mum, she didn’t believe me and told me not to lie,
She ran in
the house, checked high and low, she couldn’t believe you had died.
And now it’s
been so many years at least 25 or more,
I still remember
waiting for you as I called you at the door.
My grief has
waned, not so painful but I haven’t fallen out of love,
For I love
you now just as much as I have ever done before!
Liz A Woods
Toby Jug
He was my North, my South, my East, my
West.
