They entered the mansion, grand and wide,
Where riches gleamed on every side.
A couple stood in awe and stared,
At all the things the owner shared.
Yet soon their gaze was caught, aghast,
At something strange, a relic of the past.
A dog, or what seemed once to be,
Hung split in half for all to see.
Each half mounted upon the wall,
Its silent stare unnerved them all.
The husband gasped, the wife turned pale,
At the sight of the severed tail.
The man of wealth, in a calm, cool pace,
Noted the shock on their face.
“Ah yes,” he said with a knowing grin,
“Quite the story lies within.”
“My ex-wife,” he began to say,
“Once claimed half of all one fateful day.
She stood in court with a fiery plea,
And said, ‘The dog is half of me!’”
“She could not bear to be without
its wagging tail, and I no doubt.
had to be fair, so I had him stuffed,
And split him true, though it seemed rough.”
“A motor runs where the tail should go,
It wags, just like it used to you know,
But when she saw it, she was appalled,
And so, my friends, she sent back it all.”
He pointed to the wall again,
“To be quite fair, I wasn’t vain.
I offered her what she had sought,
But now, it’s back—her share for naught.”
The couple stood in frozen shock,
Not knowing whether to laugh or mock.
The rich man smiled, “Would you prevail
To watch it wag its severed tail?”
With that, he pressed a hidden switch,
And soon the tail began to twitch.
It wagged and wagged, though cold and still—
A testament to a stubborn will.
They left that house at a hurried pace,
But couldn’t shake the dog’s sad face.
For in that wealth, they saw the cost—
Of love, of pride, of what was lost.