Tibetan Terrier

A Tibetan Terrier has no eyes

and wears snow shoes winter and summer

a Collie might be brighter

and Chow Chow often dumber

they climb the monastery

of stairs, or jump on a window ledge

as if the Chinese are coming

over the mountain edge

remember October nineteen-fifty

and March of fifty-nine ?

hearing the twilight bark

and seeing the army line

scruffy, soulful dogs

were always there on duty

looking out for strangers

in glimpses of frozen beauty

some said their crazy bark

wasn’t kind on the ear

and frequent mad half-hours

became decades of cold fear

in the frozen Himalaya

they knew a peaceful way

before the pointed red star

had its bloody day

but dogs are still watchful

and their pups have no fear

the end of brutality

is now coming near

Paul Judges / MaverickHeart (2010)