Sad Dog‭

I don't want to eat,‭ ‬even bacon.

‭"‬You're so sad,‭ ‬Moe,‭" ‬she says.‭ "‬Me too.‭"

I don't want to sniff around.‭ ‬His scent's never new anymore.

Humans don't sniff much.‭ ‬But she holds his shirt and sniffs.‭ ‬Her eyes drip water.‭ ‬She lies down and whimpers.‭

I jump on the bed.‭ ‬She doesn't tell me‭ "‬Get down,‭ ‬Moe.‭"

Maybe sad means sniff his shirt and whimper.‭ ‬So I do.

He put stuff in my brain with needles so I can think in words.‭ ‬They come out in his light box.‭ ‬She doesn't know that yet.

I'm trying the word sad.

Author Bio: 

Cheryl Wood Ruggiero lives and writes in the mountains of southwestern Virginia.‭ ‬Her work has appeared in Abyss‭ & ‬Apex,‭ ‬The Three-Lobed Burning Eye,‭ ‬CALYX,‭ ‬South Carolina Review,‭ ‬Pebble Lake Review,‭ ‬The‭ ‬2River View,‭ ‬The Potomac,‭ ‬and Wolf Moon Journal,‭ ‬among others.‭ ‬Her poetry chapbook Old Woman at the Warm Spring is forthcoming in February‭ ‬2011‭ ‬from Finishing Line Press,‭ ‬and more of her speculative fiction is forthcoming in the anthology Shelter of Daylight Spring‭ ‬2011.