The dog curled
between the gleam
of the lamppost

and our gate’s
shadow
does not know me

anymore.
I reach out
to know

what she
has become,
snap my fingers

as always. Far off,
her head rises
glinting. I know

something is being
changed, being
returned to.

But then
the gaze
snaps back unto

itself,
curling up
on its own

shade,
as if to resume
its previous course.