Love Poem: Run
Robert Kinard Avatar
Written by: Robert Kinard

Run

The truth is stranger than fiction.
As they say,
you can’t make this stuff up.
It was the middle of summer,
And I was looking for a way to defeat
Fort Sill’s Oklahoma heat.
Escaping to the cooler climate
of Buffalo New York seem to be a good idea.	
I was in the army and home on leave, 
visiting my girlfriend Cookie at the time 
and my daughter Schanell.
I was sitting in the living room watching Cable T.V. 
I heard Schanell, my spoiled four-year-old daughter
getting a swat on her backside
for eating some cake before she had dinner.
Which I thought was OK 
until I heard her cry,
ooh! I'm gonna get my dogs!
Cookies brother Genesee
Is a dog trainer, and has trained
The dogs to protect and obey
My daughter Schanell.
He taught her how to call 
and command them. 
I heard the running of little feet in the kitchen
and the squeaky springs of a screen door 
slam on the side of the house.
Bursting through the kitchen door and
bounding through the living room 
and pass me went my girlfriend.
Cookie went up the stairs as fast 
as I have ever seen her move.
Her only warning to me was...  Run!
I heard the squeaky springs
of the screen door open to the kitchen.
And I ran up the stairs, 
like it was an Olympic event.
Like my life depended on me 
setting a new worlds record.
The attic had been remodeled
and turned into a nice bedroom.
Cookie and I stood with our backs
against the door with Fort Knox
in the form of a hook latch
between us and our very angry little girl.
With four full-grown trained Dobermans.
Who not five seconds later came 
running up to the door.
You could hear Schanell crying, 
dogs barking and her little hands banging on the door.
She was still to angry and stubborn 
to think about doing anything
but getting back at her mother.
This was 1981 cell phones
Hadn’t been in invented yet.
And the house phone was downstairs
In the living room. 
So, we sat on the floor 
With our backs to the door.
While we were waiting to be rescued.
Cookie and I with nothing better to do, 
had a romantic moment or two.
Just as we were getting warmed up.
I was wondering about the wisdom,
of giving a four-year-old control 
of four full-grown Dobermans.
Which by the way,
were some of the meanest 
People eaters you ever want to see.
We were finally saved by Cookie’s Mother Maye 
Who after calling off the dogs 
and picking up her sleeping granddaughter.
Gave Cookie and myself a few well chosen 
Colorful words.
It’s just like I said,
You can’t make this stuff up.