This work was published in The Avenue Journal, Issue X: Dogs
Man’s Best Friend
by Sammy T. Anderson
“Good golly, Dolly, do life be havin’ meaning?”
Woof, said the dog.
“Aye, could be you’re right. Seems I’ve grown blue out here on the Sea. Weary of all them troubles, as it were. Look at the sky, girl. So infinite, aye. Dolly, do it end? Do even the sky have its limits?”
Woof, said the dog.
“True it is, that the sky is eternity, aye. I ask ye, though, do the sky be our true Earth, and the stars our own kin? Is it that all things out there be as we are? All atoms and energy and stuck in the infinite? I ask ye, Dolly, do the sky be our God?”
Woof.
“Oh, dear Dolly, don’t ye see? Is the sky not forever? Aye, it must be, mustn’t it? That we are held in this sky eternal? Dolly, could it be that she is still out there? Not dead, just quiet as them stars? A part of all we see? We rock here on our boat, and she lies quiet in the dark. Such as them stars, aye?”
Woof.
“Oh, woe, Dolly, that you won’t understand! ‘Tis such pain to be a man! Is there any hope? Even as I see it, I see none! I call the sea to take me! Look on it, Dolly, and weep! I go, either from here entirely or to the depths!”
The dog sat beside him. It did not make a sound.
“Aye, Dolly, that’s it, isn’t it? Not a need to toil over God! We are here now, and we are together. A piece of eternity we keep here betwixt us! Oh, Dolly, what a grand mutt ye are!”
Woof, said the dog, and the man kept crying.
Sammy T. Anderson is a writer and filmmaker from Indiana. His work has been featured in various magazines and anthologies, and his debut chapbook Cry Bird is available from Bottlecap Press (2025). He lives with his wife and three dogs. To see more of his work, visit his website sammytanderson.com
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