Dog

There is a dog that can regularly be found on a certain corner of Jalan Tamblingan in Sanur. He is a ragged though seemingly healthy, well fed dog, off-white in color, gray jowled, and he sits on the sidewalk just at the edge of the road, front paws drooped over the curbing for hours on end. Here he watches the traffic pass by with well practiced patience, uninterrupted interest, Sphinx-like for the most part, although he can be observed to shout every once in a while at one motorbike or another, whether in particular or at random one cannot say. Every once in a while the dog will rise and step off the curb. He stands in the street for short time, thinking, perhaps, 'Today is the day I will die', and bye-and-bye, having failed to do so, returns to the sidewalk, lies down at the edge of the road, drapes his front paws over the curb and watches again with great patience and calm, a certain sort of mastery. Maybe this dog had a life once. Maybe he ran the neighborhood and foraged for food and battled enemies and mated with females and had hard times and had good times and knew both abundance and want, and now he is only old and has only his memories. Maybe he's just waiting, and remembering while he waits.