(Note: This poem has been made into a one-and-a-half-minute animated video with the help of Steve.AI. It’s on Youtube here.)

Doggy Sweater,
a poem by Jenifer Tull-Gauger

My two-year-old nephew laughed,
Not once, but both times,
When he saw our smallish dog
Wearing a yellow Sponge Bob sweater.

Reminded me of when I was little,
Thinking dogs in sweaters were funny,
My brown eyes were as big as my nephew’s.
At two, I was just as cute.

But I never got to see
A doggy as cute as Loki,
Mickey Mouse face,
Glowing white coat,
Great ears up
But folded at the top,
Stump of a tail surrounded by a rump-spot,
Big, chocolate-brown nose twitching
At the end of a pointed snout.

I never got to laugh
A freeing toddler chuckle
On seeing such a cute
Doggy in a yellow sweater.

(Read more of Jenifer’s children’s poems here.)