Day Eight: Happy 7th birthday, Bestia!

• Manja Maksimovič

Today a monster mash of a poem and the past year in the life of my friend in images.

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Prompt 8: “Peruse the work of one or more of these twitter bots, and use a line or two, or a phrase or even a word that stands out to you, as the seed for your own poem.”

The Twitter bots on offer were those with poetry by Sylvia Plath, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Ruefle, Anne Carson and Richard Siken. Oh, and the Vogon Poetry Bot with the third worst poetry in the entire universe.

The last three humans I’m unfamiliar with but I had a proper look at all the accounts and selected verses that I thought I might work with. And so I did: my poem is a cento, made up entirely with lines written by these five people and Vogons.

The lines are heavily mixed up and mashed but no word has been changed. The only thing I altered was a capital letter or two and some punctuation. I wish to thank them all.

And the general subject of my poem? Today we celebrate the 7th birthday of my companion, sidekick, familiar, rompi palle, best friend. Here we are last May:

In Terme di Saturnia. Photo: Man in Black

To my best friend (cento)

The twentieth century: trouble is real.
Tender greens weather,
underground fence post office,
squirrel from ice age orange.

Youth is a dream where I go every night.
The birth of a boy is to be watched.
To them he is a mirror,
but to you he is a room.

Words bounce.
Words, if you let them,
will do what they want to do
and what they have to do.

Philosophers say
man forms himself in dialogue.
I talk to you
as if you’re really there.

“I am so stupidly happy!
Adventure time!
And you bought me an ice cream,
and then we saw the UFO!”

His thoughts turn toward questions.
“Was I discovered or invented?
Feels like I’ve always been here.
Open your hand.”

I could say, “Yes I know that I have two hands.”
A difference between us?
He is human after all,
what you would like to become.

Love doesn’t grow on trees,
like the statue of a cat.
Often you would wake suddenly
upon our bedspread:

“You are here.
You are here.
You’re still right here,
with any human certainty.”

A love
of two wet eyes and a screech.
For future years.
With warmth.

In the photo part I give you one photo of bestia for every month, something that I do every year.

But first a bit of soundtrack. She sings that she wants a doggie. I’m so happy that I have one yet. Like every dog owner I think mine is the best, and we are all right.

Here are my posts for his previous birthday, to watch him grow and have fun:

And here is last year, Fonzie-style, by months, starting with April. We are now exactly the same age, if you believe that 1 dog year=7 human years crap, namely 49. But only for one more month and a bit.

  • April: Upon our bedspread.
  • May: My birthday celebration in Ljubljana. His favourite pose.
  • June: A new acquisition by amore’s father. It’s a cat!
  • July: Grinning and entertaining guests in Piran.
  • August: Tired but pleased pack at the end of the annual garden card tournament. Bestia doesn’t play.
  • September: With the last visitors and one special guest. Or better, we were hers.
  • October: Under my desk right here. His usual “let’s go out now” stance. These days I’m especially happy that I can go out with him without being questioned.
  • November: A rainbow after a wicked storm.
  • December: We leave him on the last seats when we go shopping but he climbs to my seat in front even though we installed the net.
  • January: A lovely sunset on our beach.
  • February: With new friend Flavia in Capalbio.
  • March: He decided that he wants to deal with this stick right then and there.

For Day 8 of NaPoWriMo 2020

42 thoughts on “Day Eight: Happy 7th birthday, Bestia!”

    1. Thank you, Lisa! 🙂 ❤ The province of Tuscany has provided three free face masks and now I'll have to walk him with my mask on. In the middle of nothing, scaring rabbits with it. Ah well, if they say so. But all well here, I hope there too.

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  7. You know I am on love with him and this post my be a great present for me as well!
    I think you are lucky to have him in your life but he is lucky as well because your feeling is mutually corresponded. Happy birthday to Fonzie once again ☺️

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  9. And he is so lovely – beautiful shots! He looks so easygoing and calm – wish my youngest would arrive there soon…a wild thing. Love your poem too – a bit like I feel now, jumbled and sometimes non coherent. A Mix of everything. But still going strong. Beautifully.
    So glad you can go out together – walking with my boys in the forest is balm to my soul. Sweet, sweet Manja and bestia – you make the perfect friends ♥ Love that February look of his…and my old guy (turning 12) does exactly the same thing when left in the car. Crawls up to my place – while the little on (biggest one really…) obediently stays in the back!

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    1. Oh, Leya, he doesn’t go along with male dogs at all, he is terrible when we meet a dog that he doesn’t like. He barks viciously and is hard to control. I can only let him free if I’m certain there is no other dog around. And now I can’t do that, since I cannot walk around as much. I can’t imagine having two dogs like him!

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    1. Thank you so much, K! 🙂 I had more problems than I expected trying to select verses that aren’t gloomy, doomy, morose or morbid for my cento. The selection of poets was not entirely to my taste. The Vogons proved the most cheerful of the bunch (but barely usable).

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