first memory

wanting something

I couldn’t have

 

out with grandma

saw a toy dog

grey and dirty

lying in the gutter

I wanted him

 

and grandma

my accomplice

took him home

to her flat

and let me play

with him

 

mum came back 

from having

her hair done

little dog was seen

 

for the first time

my mother angry

dog was snatched away

and put up high

on a shelf

I couldn't reach

 

his stiff turned up toes -

they did look dirty

but I wanted him

 

poor little dirty grey dog

he went into grandma’s bin

and was taken away

by the rubbish men