{"sf1_id":982426,"sf2_id":"znJVl73n","title":"I will give you my finest hour","author":"Ramses","words":377,"posted_at":"2016-04-03T13:45:00.000Z","tags":["Anthro","Canine","M/M","Older/younger relationship","Poetry"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/982426-i-will-give-you-my-finest-hour","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/znJVl73n","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/7d/2e/7d2ee954-4b49-44df-b886-b3d1b2c695b5","description":"","content":"A bubble of spit sits perched\n\non his puffed-out lower lip,\n\nand his eyelids softly flutter.\n\nThe young Dalmatian sleeps, dressed only in a pair\n\nof ancient boxers that once belonged to me.\n\nJust a bit - just a hint - of his sheathe pokes out\n\nfrom the boxers' front-side slit.\n\nHe sleeps on his back, left arm\n\nfolded across his chest, and\n\nright arm loose by his side.\n\nHis long and graceful legs stretch out,\n\nhis toes are pointed at the ceiling.\n\nAll of twenty-two, by the Goddess,\n\nand nestled deep in confident slumber.\n\nIf he's dreaming, he must be having\n\npeaceful and easy dreams, because\n\nhe doesn't twitch, he doesn't moan, he doesn't\n\ncurl up on his side and clutch the pillow\n\nlike a life preserver.\n\nI watch him sleep his confident sleep, I watch\n\nhis stomach fall and\u0026nbsp;rise,\n\nas he breathes in, breathes out,\n\nand I think about how the ocean's tide\n\nwashes over and shivers the sand.\n\nI breathe in the urge to stroke\n\nhis black and white fur, so short, so soft;\n\nI breathe out a selflessness\u0026nbsp;\n\nthat says, let him rest.\n\nTwenty and two!\n\nMore than half my age.\n\nNo wonder he sleeps so well, he's young,\n\nthe world hasn't done anything bad\n\nto him - not yet, anyway.\n\nHe doesn't have the ghosts, the demons,\n\nthe haunted memories which some of us\n\ncarry around like heavy souvenirs.\n\nOn this warm summer night,\n\nI hold and examine again my amazement --\n\nhere he is, in my bed,\n\nhis warm, furry form next to mine.\n\nWhat twist of fate, what chance\n\nmeeting, what unique\u0026nbsp;and\u0026nbsp;\n\nunlikely set\n\nof circumstances\n\nled him here,\n\nto\u0026nbsp;the home of an older Great Dane\n\nwith bad hips and a preference\n\nfor quiet nights in rather than loud nights out?\n\nAnd through the open window drifts\n\nthe soothing city sounds --\n\nthe car alarms, the whir of buses,\n\nthe roar of garbage trucks, the hum\n\nof giant neon signs, the ebb and flow\n\nof the hushed conversation of pedestrians\n\n(who are on their way to somewhere,\n\nat two o'clock in the morning).\n\nAnd through the open window drifts\n\nthe warm summer air --\n\nair so blessedly warm and comforting,\n\nthere's not a single trace\n\nof the chill of autumn.\n\n  \n  \n\n"}