QUEENIE
by Genny Haley 2006
A crazy little border collie pup that
herded cars
Barking, she’d race out and chase
their wheels
Didn’t have the sense to know what’s
sheep and what was tires
S’long as she was nippin’ at their
heels
Long story short, she missed one day,
the score – car 1, dog zero
Vet said amputation’d be the best
Didn’t slow her down none, but instead
of superhero,
She decided she’d herd sheep like all
the rest.
Trained her to obey commands, by
voice, or hand, or whistled,
But in Queenie’s soul an inner fire
burned
You put some sheep out in a field,
Queenie’s hair just bristled
A’quiver with desire that can’t be
learned.
Winter storms would pound the coast,
lightning, rain and wind
Sheep, they’d scatter, running in
alarm
Queenie’d crouch and circle, comin’
closer, closin’ in
Until huddled, Queenie’d head ‘em to
the barn.
Took her to the sheepdog trials in
Boonville at the Fair
Apple, wine, wool growers and the rest
Competin’ for blue ribbons, excitement
in the air
All displayin’ what they do the best.
Those sheepdogs were in finest form,
herders’d trained ‘em good
To get the sheep through gates and
chutes and penned
Though Queenie’d gotten on in years
she gave it all she could,
Saved her finest hour for the end.
Stands were packed with spectators,
everyone was quiet
Then a whisperin’ spread among the
crowd
“Lookit that 3-legged dog, damn, ain’t
that a riot. . . “
Soon they weren’t laughin’ quite so
loud.
Queenie lit out on command, crouched
and slowly hopped,
Had ‘em herded through gates 1 and 2
Circled wide and waited – sheep by now
had stopped,
Tryin’ to figure out what that damn
dog would do.
Queenie gave her “stink-eye” stare to
remind them where they stand
“Don’t even
think about it,” as
she’d creep.
Her every move hypnotic, “You are
under my command—
For I am Dog, and you, God knows, are
sheep.”
That 3-legged dog got 3 sheep through
the chute and in the pen
In record time that ain’t been beat in
years
We took blue ribbon, Queenie ‘n me,
got the flock home again--
I still can hear that crowd break out
in cheers.
Now Queenie’s dead these thirty years
and time’s turned many a page,
The sheep are gone -- I’m about used
up
But never underestimate the wileyness
of age
Or a crazy 3-legged border collie pup.
This poem is fiction but is based on a true event. I was one of
the spectators. It was the first sheepdog trial I attended and there
was a 3-legged dog that took
first prize. It was something to watch, and obviously, was quite
memorable.
http://www.thedogplace.org/PROSE/Queenie_Haley.asp
