My companion. My everything.
Pepper – not salt—is always there.
To greet me at my door, to warn me of an intruder,
or to lick my feet.
Five, six, seven, eight times in a row, his head nods up and down
like a buoy bobbing in the sea.
Lick after lick, he mends my wounds,
or kindles my broken heart.
With the beard of a ripened man,
Pepper thinks of me as his sister
who spoils him, and who strokes him until his eyes shut slowly
like the sun that sets behind the horizon.
Both antsy and spiffy,
clever and sharp.
I’ve learned how nice it is to have someone just accept me,
no matter what.
I know I always have someone to listen to me,
no matter what.
The love I have for Pepper is never ending,
and we will always be best friends,
and we will never be complete without each other.
No matter what.