For Nani, The Dog
Akila Metheny
Painted with the contrast of yin and yang,
you were
the panting joy of our lives.
All tongue and ears,
winding your way through forest,
lapping up lake water,
smiling forever.
We miss you, dear girl.
Our hearts shattered
in the end;
fine porcelain falling from a great height.
Your paw print forever stamped in white plaster.
Gasping with grief,
we had to learn
to breathe once more,
to begin again,
to walk off leash.
Akila Metheny is an alumnus of UNCG (class of 2015). She dabbles in poetry as a hobby and has recently come out of a two-year-long writing hiatus. Her Instagram account is @l.t.grey.poems, where she is primarily known for her poetry under that pseudonym. Her father, who inspired her to write, is a widely published poet named Gary Metheny whose work appears in several national and international literary magazines.