A Dog on his Master

As young as I look,


I am growing older faster than he,


seven to one 
is the ratio

they tend to say.

Whatever the number,


I will pass him one day

and take the lead


the way I do on our walks in the woods.

And if this ever manages

to cross his mind,


it would be the sweetest 
shadow

I have ever cast on snow or grass. 

-- Billy Collins

Poet Laureate of the United States, 2001-2003