Words are songs poems questions answers revelations and sometimes they are empty unfinished sentences leading nowhere. Sometimes words are just a jumbled game of Scrabble and you have to get up get away get a drink get a different game to play.

Lily is four little letters. Her poem is a dog scrambling to hold her place in the world, but it keeps tipping and spilling her off the cushions. She has a song she sings and my friend Mary heard it when she visited the dog pound after Lily came in. No dog should make those noises, Mary said. German shepherds just don’t howl like that, she said.

I talked to animal control and she told me: that dog, diarrhea was everywhere the next morning. Answers and revelations? We have answered what her ailments are not. Not the pancreas, worms, parasites, inflamed bowel. I feel like I am halfway through the box and no prize yet.

Jerry said, just call another vet. Get another opinion. Shouldn’t I finish her second round of parasite treatments, I think? Well, I guess I’ll call our vet. I realize I have had that conversation a few times recently and I wonder why I procrastinate.

On the news I overhear: a truck has spilled its load of Clementines. The highway is shut down and somehow it’s funny to me. I picture a zillion little orange orbs rolling bouncing along blacktop and grass until they rest. A great big bocce game.

Snow. The forecast is saying snow snow SNOW, which means hurry up and get your milk and bread.

Bandit has been a pain in the ass lately, wrinkling his lip and a little growl at Lily. I suddenly remember Meghan in third grade who had a pretty herring bone braid in her hair. I told her, that looks really cute. I was a kid I was trying to act social I was trying not to be shy I was trying to say something that might earn me the first words leading to friendship. Meghan said, I hate the word cute.

Later that year we were standing in rows in the gymnasium singing for the chorus. It was hot and we heard a hollow, hard thud just like someone’s head hitting the floor. Meghan had passed out and collapsed. Her cute little head hit the floor.

In the morning it looks like Lily and I will need our snowshoes. I pulled two ticks off the dogs yesterday and tonight.