Dogs and Fire

Let us but tame dogs and fire and we can start to make a decent life

We can take a cave from a bear or make shelters with mammoth tusks

We will paint ourselves with ochre and the other colors that we find

We can carve the spirits of our revered prey upon these deadly spears

The dogs will warn us noisily of the approach of any stranger

We can even eat the tender puppies when the times grow very lean

We will huddle together in the furs through the long ice age nights

We will learn to mark the comings and the goings of the sun and the moon

Our fires will light the darkness and bring terror to the awful beasts

We can cook the meat we obtain and warm ourselves in its glow

The dogs will dream and twitch between the fire and the dark night

The dancing shadows will release the mystic patterns out of our imaginations

The dogs will guard the children and bond with them in their play

The fire will dry the clothing without which we would quickly perish

The flickering firelight will reveal where to paint our pictures

Let the dogs eat the garbage that might well attract hyenas

Tend the flames with care that we do not lie frightened in the darkness

Teach the dogs and children to shit away from our campsites

Set them loose when we have cornered something very large

Reward them with tasty scraps as they lick their bloody wounds

Stoke the fire that we might gather round and memorize our history in song

Keep some water close enough that it does not freeze at night

String the beads and stitch the furs in the blue twilight of these long winters

Keep the dogs warm and fed that they help us overcome the starving beasts

Give us warm light and safe free time to make weapons, tools and spirit art

Let us gaze for hours through the flames into the mysteries beyond

Give us dogs and fire without which we crouch in fear and darkness

And we will have short secure moments to wonder at our own existence