sittin’ on a tailgate
listenin’ to the dogs
run a rabbit out in
some big open field
forty miles away it
seemed from just
about anything else

beagles are a way 
of life for us; they
have always been
my great grandpa
my pappy, my dad
and then me too

floppy eared and
big eyed; baying
through brush as
they jump another 
one up and take off

we raise em up as
family; they belong
to us and us to them
from stoic pups all
the way to the end
I have never known
what it is like without
the love of a good old
beagle hound 

lord, what would it
be like without them?
I don’t reckon that I
ever want to know