I used to live in a house
With an unruly dog upstairs
He barked and growled
And was scared of almost everything
I tried for years
To control him
And train him
But nothing worked
Until I became exhausted
And demoralized
I even tried ignoring him
But that made him worse
I leashed him
It didn’t help
Eventually I abandoned all strategies and just sat with him, he with his anger
And me with my sadness and desperation
And pretty soon
We fell into the deepest silence
I began to cry
And then he began to howl
And before long there was crying and howling
And then laughing came
And even joy
And he began running around
And licking and wagging
And from that day on he has been
Like a puppy
And I have been pretty silent
Of course sometimes we both
Forget
But pretty soon we start howling and crying and laughing and barking
And it’s all alright again.