Rex The Fetcher

I saw you,
Slowly approaching me from a distance.
With your shoulders hunched.
Tail between your hind legs.
Attempting to hide and catch me by surprise.

Rex?
I had a reason,
To teach you how and what to fetch.
And you may not have liked me.
Or why that lesson I taught.
Prepared you for what would come next.
But...
Everywhere I had gone to go,
You were there to ignore me.
That I knew to know.

Everywhere I go.
You are there to show up.
For what?
To expect your disrespect I will accept?
With a happiness to see you.
And tears expressing my regret?

Rex?
Come closer.
I have not changed.
I am the same person you left.
You made the choice.
To distance yourself.
From the sound of my voice.

Rex?
You must have discovered a lot about people.
People can be evil and I have told you that.
But you grew to want it proven to me,
A peaceful life to live had been my fantasy.
When I said you were my best friend?
I thought you were mine.
Wrong about that I must have been.
I wanted you to learn to stay observant.
Not a servant to impulsive immediate wants.
Or become disappointed by others.
Who saw you as just a hound dog.
On a leash to flaunt.

How far from a lost mind have you gone?
To achieve,
Being betwixt, bothered and bewildered?
Rex?
I have told you time and time again,
You were more to me than a dog.
You were my best friend and I meant it.

How many times have I told you,
A bigger bone to you thrown...
Will eventually erase,
The truth to completely have it replaced.
Did you find that true?
Do you now wish that I agree with you?
Is that what your puppy eyes,
Shown to me you are hoping to believe?

Rex?
What you have learned,
I didn't teach you at all.
You have become more deceiving.
A teller of lies I see in your eyes.
Smart and manipulative.
That from me you can not disguise.
And I know you only came back,
To test and teach me what you have learned.
But guess what Rex?
My peace of mind to keep it kept,
Had been earned not given.
To recognize deception and lies told to tell.
Yet...
You could not wait to assume and anticipate.
I knew nothing more,
Than to have you fetch as if I did not know...
I wanted you to grow to be better than that.
Why are you here?
To be fed?
Washed and cleaned.
Then prance around like you are the king.
With a doing to have other dogs believe,
You allow me to walk closely behind you?
As if...
I am the one proud to be in your presence?
That collar I wore I don't anymore.
And that leash you once brought to me.
To demand we walk,
Around the neighborhood while you strut?
Guess what?
I threw it out when you decided,
My pace was too slow.
And you believed yourself,
To be the main attraction.

Oh...
Drop the stick.
That game to play,
You've already shown you got tired of it.
Although I will admit missing you.
However...
Don't raise your tail to wag it too fast!
I'm in no mood for puppy love.