Grand children would be easier

[brynmawr1]

We struggled to find a name
hoping to plug a hole or put
an egg back in the nest.
 
Only eleven weeks, 8.9lbs
we decide on Penny, tho’
my wife has started calling her
Pepper.
 
She loves that fuzzy bear we bought
at Target, soft as my heart,
which she ravages like she owns it

an owner.

Do you understand how the context of the poem would agree with that phrasing?   I do but I don't like it.  Turns the connotation in a different direction.

 
On walks people ask what she is
with her tufted, terrier scruff
of a chin and her half-mast ears.
 
You see how you have a rare opportunity here to be blatant but still subtle?  Tempted.  I might miss the rhythm of the cut parts.  How about ...her terrier scruffed chin

I say she is everything.

Hi Rowens,
Thanks for your suggestions.
Take care,
Bryn

---

We struggled to find a name
hoping to plug a hole or put
an egg back in the nest.
 
Only eleven weeks, 8.9lbs
we decide on Penny, tho’
my wife has started calling her
Pepper.
 
She loves that fuzzy bear we bought
at Target, soft as my heart,
which she ravages like she owns it.
 
On walks people ask what she is
with her tufted, terrier scruff
of a chin and her half-mast ears.
 
I say she is everything.

First stanza is marvellous.  Intentional or not, I thought this was about a human infant until I got to the "tufted, terrier scruff/of a chin..."  Then I wondered if you'd birthed a freak.  "Suely not" I said to myself, "a bearded child?" and after a second or third reading, I realized I'd been tricked.  Or tricked myself with expectation.

Sorry, not much of a critique.  I guess I wouldn't change a thing.

I almost titled it "Puppies" then tried to be clever.  Never been good at titling my poems.  Thought about adding a stanza about peeing in the house!
Thanks for commenting,
Bryn