{"id":1680,"date":"2019-01-17T13:31:53","date_gmt":"2019-01-17T13:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/?p=1680"},"modified":"2020-02-25T14:07:49","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T14:07:49","slug":"township-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/?p=1680","title":{"rendered":"Township Dog"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong>One of the saddest sights in South African townships are the large number of neglected, hungry and maltreated dogs that roam around.\u00a0<\/strong> <\/em><\/p><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"  wp-image-1880 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/TPOTG-Township-Dog-with-Frame.jpg\" alt=\"TPOTG Township Dog with Frame\" width=\"379\" height=\"315\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/TPOTG-Township-Dog-with-Frame.jpg 1280w, http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/TPOTG-Township-Dog-with-Frame-300x250.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/TPOTG-Township-Dog-with-Frame-768x640.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/TPOTG-Township-Dog-with-Frame-644x537.jpg 644w, http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/TPOTG-Township-Dog-with-Frame-1200x1000.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 379px) 100vw, 379px\" \/><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center;\">I don\u2019t have a name,<br \/>No one ever loved me that much,<br \/>And from when I was a pup<br \/>I\u2019ve known no gentle touch;<br \/>You see I\u2019m a township dog<br \/>And ever since my arrival<br \/>My days have been spent<br \/>Fighting just for survival.<br \/>No bowls filled with food,<br \/>I scavenge scraps instead,<br \/>And I sleep where I can,<br \/>There\u2019s no comfortable bed.<br \/>I\u2019m often unwell,<br \/>But there\u2019s no vet to arrange,<br \/>I\u2019m covered in fleas<br \/>And my coat\u2019s full of mange.<br \/>The long winter\u2019s nights,<br \/>I find nothing is worse,<br \/>Those freezing cold winds<br \/>Are this thin dog\u2019s curse.<br \/>I keep out of the way,<br \/>Or else I get kicked,<br \/>And for illegal dog fights<br \/>I hope I\u2019m never picked.<br \/>At avoiding deadly traffic<br \/>I\u2019ve become quite adept,<br \/>A parental skill<br \/>I\u2019ve thankfully kept.<br \/>I don\u2019t know another life,<br \/>Being part of a home,<br \/>Being loved and cared for,<br \/>Not being left just to roam.<br \/>As kindness is not something<br \/>I\u2019ve ever known,<br \/>Then trust is not something<br \/>I\u2019ve ever shown.<br \/>But who cares about me?<br \/>Why should I be saved?<br \/>I\u2019m just a township dog,<br \/>Alone and afraid.<\/p><div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"  wp-image-2613 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/TOOTG-Copyright-2016-2020-01.jpg\" alt=\"TOOTG Copyright 2016-2020 01\" width=\"193\" height=\"116\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/TOOTG-Copyright-2016-2020-01.jpg 5000w, http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/TOOTG-Copyright-2016-2020-01-300x180.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/TOOTG-Copyright-2016-2020-01-768x461.jpg 768w, http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/TOOTG-Copyright-2016-2020-01-644x386.jpg 644w, http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/TOOTG-Copyright-2016-2020-01-1200x720.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 193px) 100vw, 193px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the saddest sights in South African townships are the large number of neglected, hungry and maltreated dogs that roam around.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have a name,No one ever loved me that much,And from when I was a pupI\u2019ve known no gentle touch;You see I\u2019m a township dogAnd ever since&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/?p=1680\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[65,112,250,11,10,12,249,31],"class_list":["post-1680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections","tag-dogs","tag-food","tag-lonely","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-rhymes","tag-scavenging","tag-verse"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phbx6B-r6","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1680"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2723,"href":"http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680\/revisions\/2723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thepoetryoftonygraham.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}