<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><div><p>"MARKING TIME WITH MY MAESTRO"</p><p>How can I take it in</p><p>and hold onto it forever</p><p>remember each moment?</p><p>I know they will pass</p><p>and I will forget</p><p>the warmth of his belly when he wakes up in the morning</p><p>the warmth of the crux of his neck just under his beautiful ear</p><p>soft and warm and oh so comfortable</p><p>before or after a shower</p><p>scented or not.</p><p>How can I take it in</p><p>So I can remember</p><p>So I can recall</p><p>the ever so slight way in which he would speak</p><p>that little grunt</p><p>that little sound</p><p>It always answered me, and I answered it.</p><p>Sweet sleeping man over there on your bed</p><p>Lifting your eyelids to look at me</p><p>Until they are so so heavy</p><p>then you fall asleep.</p><p>**Maestro made his journey to the bridge on May 1, 2011. Although I wonder if he was crying too, I know that if he was, it wasn't for long because he was met and ushered across e by the many gazillion beloved hounds who journeyed before he ever got there. I received so many notes of condolences and encouragement from droolers. Thank you all so much.</p><p>And by the way, I will never forget those things in this poem. Writing this was my exercise to remember each sensory experience …and just in case, I have preserved his monkey in a plastic bag. :)</p><p>Lyle Cogen</p></div></body></html>