Leunig the dog came to the back door last night
Young and fit 
His muzzle no longer gray

Then I found myself at the dump 
Throwing away perfectly good white lawn chairs made of plastic
I stopped and pulled them out of the dumpster
Giving them to a white-haired couple in a Cadillac

Leunig’s new family came to get him
They live forty minutes north
The dump is two thousand miles east

When they left I nearly walked into the wrong house

We had guests 
But they were strangers
There was a pile of peas on the floor
That everyone kept stepping around

The children were younger

I think my dead father was there

But the alarm went off
So I can’t be sure