A living shade,
Unblessed, has strayed
Where saints are laid
To rest, unbound

From earthly pain.
In sleet, in rain,
He waits in vain
For just one sound—

Beloved tone
Unheard, unknown
Where graves of stone
Lie flower-crowned.

No soft command
Or calloused hand
Bids him to stand
And guard this ground,

And yet he stays.
At dusk he bays,
And Heaven’s gaze
Falls on the mound

Where heart has yearned
As seasons turned:
A soul is earned
By grieving hound.

~Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh, Scotland

Notes: A Skye Terrier known as Greyfriars Bobby is said to have guarded his master’s grave in Greyfriars Kirkyard for 14 years.

First published in flash & cinder , no. 1 (July 2018): 56-57. Edited by Matthew Thorpe-Coles. Bath, England. Web. https://flashandcinder.com/issue-one-spirit/ .