Beggar

She's fast asleep at Woden's feet
 Whilst alms I seek from thronging fairfolk
 As a whelp fast to the teat
 She smote me then
 We've ever since been shadows
 Two beasts of one old soul
 If you rely on the kindness of strangers
 It helps to have a hound for a handmaid
 Not only for the superior nose
 Or companionship
 Often people stop to talk with me
 Having never seen before such a very beautiful snow-coloured collie
 Working the fell - a most powerful eye
 Part of the grass, fast as lightning
 Before the children were grown
 They'd ride her like a pony
 Through the nodding banners yesterday
 She went in chase of a ship's rat
 At my wit's end I finally located her
 Under a whining bush, my poor old lady, seized by a fit
 When the raiders came in their flaming carriages
 She went running to her family
 While I listened on, cowering behind a pile of logs
 There's no denying it
 I sold my shoes so I could buy a chicken
 A penance and a treat on her final day
 Now she is gone I carry her down to the sea
 And scream at the sinking stars
 "Can you ever forgive me?"