Dear Rufus (the dog), 

 

Da Vinci drew the body to help him understand

I too have learnt about you using pencils in my hand

Four years since I first drew you

Many lessons been learned

Drawing helps overcome my dog fear

The tables have turned

It’s okay Rufus you can have them, you can take all my chips

And my pizza, take it all, can I get you some dips?

Take my jumper when its freezing, I promise not to quiver

Don’t worry, for you my little dog friend, go ahead and let me shiver

I’m sorry, beg my pardon, I won’t complain at your poo

You can poopy in my garden, its smell reminds me of you

And when I wake up in the morning, and you’ve done a little wee

All over my expensive carpet, it will be a sight I like to see

Leave your hair on my new sofa, I won’t wash it out for days

Finding hair all the way over, I don’t care how long it stays

And at my Christmas dinner table,

all my guests hungry for food

You can jump up eat all the turkey, I won’t shout out something rude

But remember, my little dog love,

however difficult this sounds

You still can’t jump up onto our bed in the middle of the night

Wake me up, lick me all over

Lie down between me and Alex

Go to sleep and snore

My little dog muse

Our bed is strictly out of bounds

 

Lee

 

P.S  Remember Rufus

When the world throws me a curve ball,

you’re my trusted loyal friend

Always there to reassure me

Providing comfort in the end

Beneath the surface of my poems

lying underneath the joke

There’s love in every drawing

in every line in every stroke

 

How do I draw Rufus many folk ask?

Is it a labour of love or gentle Sunday afternoon task?

How do I capture his dark puppy dog eyes

What’s the secret? Well folks, there’s no big surprise

19 pencils, and rubber, and sharpener will do

Some sheer perseverance and a beer maybe two

 

19 pencils, one for each graphite hardness degree

Let’s start off with 14, 12, and 10 and not forgetting 8B

14 and 12 for his dark coat and wet soggy nose

For his big puppy dog eyes, 10B and 8B I chose

They are the trickiest part of Rufus to draw

But you will know when you’ve drawn them correctly

You will when for sure

When they stare back at you and at only that stage

will they follow you around, magically leap off the page

To draw his head at an angle, just shy of 18 degrees

Use a protractor and employ those 6, 5 and 4Bs

His eyes, if drawn correctly will command you part with your food

Rufus wants all your chips, whether they’re whole or part chewed

Be strong fellow draughtsmen, he will take and will take

Don’t let anyone catch you feeding him, it’s a drawing for God sake

 

But feeding a drawing if Rufus is properly portrayed

is a mistake unavoidable, so easily made

For his spotty dog coat requiring medium shading

3B and B good for blending and fading

After a night asleep on his blanket, 2B for small deposits of poo

HB for stain wee or a shade lighter will do

Now we come to the H range in our instruments of lead

F, H, 2H, 3H ideal for that quiff of hair, top of his head

Lastly 4H, 5H, and 6H for hairs of his under belly

It’s where he likes the most tickles but can be a bit smelly

 

So there you have it, how to draw Rufus, a step by step guide

Follow my instructions and there will be Rufus almost in flesh by your side

 

P.S  

Yes, you might want to draw him in photo realist perfection

But I draw what he makes me feel inside, in my gut, that intimate connection

Tension in lines, ripped and torn 

Embody our play fights where battle lines drawn

And it is the P.S, the post-scriptum, fellow draughtsmen

that can often outweigh

Everything wrote before it, it holds what we mean to say

‘Spare a thought for your dear Mum and my poor old legs

Isn’t it shocking how much Sainsbury’s have put up the price of their eggs

P.S, Lee, I love how you have captured Rufus’s deep pensive look

That one in his basket. Must have taken you ages to draw him. Was it a couple of hours you took?’

Half reading this message on Facebook that my mum wrote to me

wrote last November, never imagined how important that post scriptum would be

when Mum passed away only a couple of days after

Who knew a post scriptum could contain as much sadness as laughter?

 

If there is one thing I hope that this poem has taught

Is that the often lowly footnote, or raft of sudden side thought

as embodied in the post-scriptum, can often hold the most weight

Be confident, say it now, not the end, before it’s too late

 

And so,

 

Dear Rufus

 

When the world throws me a curve ball,

you’re my trusted loyal friend

Always there to reassure me

Providing comfort in the end

Beneath the surface of my poems

lying underneath the joke

There’s love in every drawing

in every line in every stroke.