The Smell of Warm Animal

is the smell of kindness, of curling up against
someone, or something, of faith.
The smell of warm animal is the first smell, after you are dropped
puny blind and blinking 
on your mother's chest, and years later a dog trots in
and whumps against your belly, and you were just worrying
that your belly is too round, curving outward as you lie on your side in the bed, 
you're fresh out of the shower and naked, no longer puny,
the dog trots in and lodges her warm little body
against you, a furry missile, then presses her paws
into the bedspread, pushing closer, and there is not enough of you
she needs to be closer, her soft fur a bouquet of rabbit chases
and long afternoon naps by a wood fire,
her love is bigger than your belly, like faith,
like a mother's love, reminding you
that everything you are
or are not
is exactly
enough.