John Budan

Last Stop

Besides being blind, she is frail, yet she never misses an opportunity for a car ride. Today we have an important errand, but first I take Daisy to her preferred city park. She wags her tail and stumbles on the grass, sniffing the excrement of other dogs. But after five minutes she lies down, too exhausted to walk. I struggle loading her sixty-pound body back into the car before driving to her favorite restaurant. After swallowing two quarter-pound hamburgers, she licks my face in gratitude and falls asleep. At our last stop, I feel the flood of her warm urine on my lap immediately after the needle is plunged.

mound of flowers
a worn leash
on a battered frisbee
moist from the tears
of her family

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About the Author

John Budan has published widely. He lived in France where he found his alter ego Guignol in Paris at the Jardin du Luxembourg.