The Dead Dog in the Drain

By Robert James DeBurgh (Poet)

Outside Mustafa's shoe shop there
Is a drain, and a dog is in it, dead, where
It fell, after the smell of Mustafa's feet
Came out of the shop and into the street.

Wafting over the scabby beggar with the mug
It straightaway found the nose of the pug
Which Howled at the stench (worse than
The trench that's the drain!)

The hound was in pain from the terrible Pong
But mercifully that didn't last long,
For the dog died, just fell on it's side
And there it lies dead in the gutter.

And I can hear Mustafa mutter
About the smell from the street.
But does he know that, ab inito,
The "PRIMUM CASUS" was his feet?

Cairo 1895

NOTES ON PROVENANCE:
The above poem, a newly discovered opus from RJ de B, was found in an old tea caddy that was unearthed during the preparations for building the new Cairo RSPCA Animal Refuge. Does this indicate that the Master was prescient??