Ugly is as Ugly Does

World’s Ugliest Dog Dies, 11/22/05
Associated Press

Sam didn’t know from ugly
though he was judged the ugliest dog
in the world three times.

Perhaps the ugliness accounted for his becoming
a rescue case, a purebred
Chinese crested hairless in need of saving.

He won Susie Lockheed’s heart
notwithstanding his crooked teeth and knobby head
topped by tuft of hair

and together they wowed the international scene:
made appearances in Japan,
radio in New Zealand, a British tabloid.

He even had a website,
and the Discovery Channel planned a series
on the world’s ugliest species.

How this canine outcast became world class,
parlayed what he had not
into fame and fortune, a beautiful life,

may have occurred to Sam,
as he and TatorTot, Tinkerbell, and PixieNoodle
snuggled under Susie Lockheed’s blankets.

Originally published in Harvest, 2012