David Fenton

Lyrics

DOG AND MAN

The moon floats over an empty sky.
She stares at me with her bulging eye.
She chills my face with her lifeless light,
For what is a dog to the Queen of the Night?

Soon the sun, that unjust Judge,
Will torture me for an unnamed grudge.
In stinking streets my blood he dries :
A dog must live until he dies.

I howl at the moon, at her senseless eye
In celestial silence sliding by.
Her face is numb, the road is wide,
She passes by on the other side.
A dog must live until he dies.

A man lies here every day of Cain,
With shrivelled flesh and withered vein.
Hope from his whitened eyes has been wrung.
All he feels is the scraping of my tongue.

And so I lick, and so he lies -
A man must live until he dies.
The crowd is numb, the road is wide :
They pass us on the other side.
Dog and Man must curse the flies.

My tongue has stirred the old man’s heart.
“Meri dhost” ... his stiff lips part.
His whisper takes away my shame :
Now at least I have a name ...
Dog and Man

(“Meri dhost” is Punjabi for “My friend”)

© 2025 David Fenton
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