sharing an unusual dog poem

I confess it: I'm not up on my contemporary poetry (case in point: I'm typing this to the accompaniment of Outkast's "Rosa Parks"). But today I stumbled across this piece by the American poet A. E. Stallings, An Ancient Dog Grave, Unearthed During Construction of the Athens Metro. (Stallings lives in Greece.) This is something evocative and calling forth sweetness without tugging at the usual strings, as you'll see.

It is not the curled up bones, nor even the grave
That stops me, but the blue beads on the collar
(Whose leather has long gone the way of hides)
The ones to ward off evil. A careful master
Even now protects a favorite, just so. . .

Rest of the poem here. And spare a thought for the shade of that long-ago pet.