A SYMPATHY SONNET
They briefly grace our lives. We know
One year for them is seven of ours.
When we have barely aged at all,
It will be time for them to go.
In parting from our pets we learn
How hard it is to love and lose.
Happiness is not meant to be eternal:
This is the destiny we did not choose.
And when in latter years our friends,
Our partners and our pets depart,
They leave us aimless, wondering, at loose ends,
How to go on with broken hearts.
Our saving grace is comrades in despair.
Such grief our neighbors have cause to share.