HOME | DD

Description
I'm going to tell you a story. I'm not telling you this story to upset you. I am telling you this story to contemplate.
Last night i found in a field a starving dog. It was dying from starvation. It was beyond the point of even being able to eat.

It shuddered and twitched and shivered and was unable to leave a small circle of a few feet. I thought of how i could help this little creature who was suffering from the worst neglect and i went to the local medical clinic to see if we could put the dog down with an injection. The nurse wasn't there.

I walked back to the frail lil’ soul and thought momentarily about hitting him with a big rock or cutting his throat, but i couldn't bring myself to do that either. I went home in the cold evening air and found a blanket. I took it back to him and on the way found an old synthetic children's jumper which was soft and warm. I folded the charcoal woolen blanket and knelt down beside the lil one. I wrapped him up in it. I gave him the soft synthetic jumper as a pillow. I pulled the blanket over his body for warmth and tucked him in under that expansive night of wind and stars. Outside was to be no more for him. I lamented.
I gently placed my hand over the blanket and resting on his hollow ribs, I said a prayer for him.
I went home.
I had a warm shower.
I watched a drama about werewolves.
I slept.

In the morning at School I was on yard duty in the frosty morning sun. I gazed over to the field where the lil' one lay. As i thought of him an old local farmer drove to the lil dog. He went to the back of his ute and decisively pulled from it a heavy metal sledge-hammer. He swung two straight and heavy blows to the dying one's head. His life was over.
He walked then decisively back to his ute, and drove off.
A passerby told me there was a dead dog to bury. I wondered for a moment why he wouldn't see it and do it himself, like it would be naturally the first and right thing to do. But then i felt peace that this was part of my story. Our journey.

As i went to get him a student in my class told me he wanted to bury the dog with me. I smiled. It felt good.

He taught me much. About how the dog will be eaten by other dogs once he bloats because the other dogs would smell him. He told me that now though, he doesn't smell yet and the other dogs would think he's still alive. I thought about how now even in death, there is still neglect so even his starved shell left behind would be pulled apart. He told me to take it well away from the community and we did. I dug a hole in heavy red sand. Bradley got the lil' one from the back of my truck and placed him on the ground beside his grave.

I placed him in.
Bradley covered him.
I searched for two straight branches to make a cross. Bradley found broken asbestos like plates which he made a frame for the grave-site. I placed the cross upon the sand.

I said "we'll see you in the stars lil' one".
Bradley said something very quiet and short like a song in Pitjantjatjara.
I beeped my horn for him as we left.

I came home. I gathered the rest of dead and dried grass and even some green in my yard and I poured petrol upon it. I told my neighbor of its smoke. I lit it up and in a whoosh it was up in a gust of flames. I photographed its consummation and swayed through the fire. As it neared its ending, I was left with smouldering embers and thick smoke. The memories of the lil' dog were carried on its ephemeral spirit as it flickered and swayed and released up and out into the dusk and night sky.

These are the images i present here.
Quietly, Alexander.

Description
I'm going to tell you a story. I'm not telling you this story to upset you. I am telling you this story to contemplate.
Last night i found in a field a starving dog. It was dying from starvation. It was beyond the point of even being able to eat.

It shuddered and twitched and shivered and was unable to leave a small circle of a few feet. I thought of how i could help this little creature who was suffering from the worst neglect and i went to the local medical clinic to see if we could put the dog down with an injection. The nurse wasn't there.

I walked back to the frail lil’ soul and thought momentarily about hitting him with a big rock or cutting his throat, but i couldn't bring myself to do that either. I went home in the cold evening air and found a blanket. I took it back to him and on the way found an old synthetic children's jumper which was soft and warm. I folded the charcoal woolen blanket and knelt down beside the lil one. I wrapped him up in it. I gave him the soft synthetic jumper as a pillow. I pulled the blanket over his body for warmth and tucked him in under that expansive night of wind and stars. Outside was to be no more for him. I lamented.
I gently placed my hand over the blanket and resting on his hollow ribs, I said a prayer for him.
I went home.
I had a warm shower.
I watched a drama about werewolves.
I slept.

In the morning at School I was on yard duty in the frosty morning sun. I gazed over to the field where the lil' one lay. As i thought of him an old local farmer drove to the lil dog. He went to the back of his ute and decisively pulled from it a heavy metal sledge-hammer. He swung two straight and heavy blows to the dying one's head. His life was over.
He walked then decisively back to his ute, and drove off.
A passerby told me there was a dead dog to bury. I wondered for a moment why he wouldn't see it and do it himself, like it would be naturally the first and right thing to do. But then i felt peace that this was part of my story. Our journey.

As i went to get him a student in my class told me he wanted to bury the dog with me. I smiled. It felt good.

He taught me much. About how the dog will be eaten by other dogs once he bloats because the other dogs would smell him. He told me that now though, he doesn't smell yet and the other dogs would think he's still alive. I thought about how now even in death, there is still neglect so even his starved shell left behind would be pulled apart. He told me to take it well away from the community and we did. I dug a hole in heavy red sand. Bradley got the lil' one from the back of my truck and placed him on the ground beside his grave.

I placed him in.
Bradley covered him.
I searched for two straight branches to make a cross. Bradley found broken asbestos like plates which he made a frame for the grave-site. I placed the cross upon the sand.

I said "we'll see you in the stars lil' one".
Bradley said something very quiet and short like a song in Pitjantjatjara.
I beeped my horn for him as we left.

I came home. I gathered the rest of dead and dried grass and even some green in my yard and I poured petrol upon it. I told my neighbor of its smoke. I lit it up and in a whoosh it was up in a gust of flames. I photographed its consummation and swayed through the fire. As it neared its ending, I was left with smouldering embers and thick smoke. The memories of the lil' dog were carried on its ephemeral spirit as it flickered and swayed and released up and out into the dusk and night sky.

These are the images i present here.
Quietly, Alexander.