Dog Quandary (Theme: At the Beach) by Gita Banerji

looking out to sea

       desperate to follow his mistress

& save her from the marauding waves,

         he yet stops, thrown by the power

& unpredictability of the breakers,

reluctant to get wet.

      at the water’s edge

      the world stops for a moment

         as he weighs up his quandary ...

       straining his brain for a third alternative

driven by the over-riding instinct, he

         finally surges into the seething morass,

battling to be by her side

       (she,

     blissfully bobbing and floating,

unaware of his strange and gallant chivalry)