Ruby '81 - Aesop Rock
Look go happy holidays
July 4th 1981
Candles of a Roman ilk
Unloaded from a Chevy truck
Into the home where folks had built
Patio was charcoals
And extended fam in folding chairs
Safely arced around the yard
To focus on the smoking flares
Couple cousins uncles aunts
Mostly grown-ups couple brats
Baby Ruby's only two
She's too close to the jumping jacks
Mommy scoops her to the house
Buckles up the booster seat
Rolls her to the storm door
Let her long for all the lunacy
Telephone distracting Mom
Ruby wriggles at her strap
Fingers push the plexiglass
She's off into the sour patch
Past the pyrotechnics
Undetected and invisible
Woke the sleeping beagle
Skipping toward the kidney swimming pool
Off into the yawning blue
The splash would mum the rocket ships
Ruby's lungs were filling
By the time her kin were cognisant
Many sprung and sprinted down
All arrived belated but
The beast she had earlier stirred
Had been alert since waking up
The canine let his gainer fly
Water top commotion grow
Howling guests assume
The cloven hooves had come to do-si-do
Frenzied and congested deck
Part to let the elders see
Soggy beagle gently dragging
Ruby in his yellow teeth
Laid the tiny body
In the sun before her father's feet
When she choked the liquid through her bluish lips
He dropped his knee
Helped the air to reconvene
Toweled a shaking Ruby off
EMT confirmed the save
Everybody said "Good Dog"
