TUNES // Bellows – Death of Dog

Post by Misha

There is a place back home, behind the house and in between two lilac bushes, where all the pets from my childhood are buried. Monty the cat who was already eleven when I was born. A goldfish and a hamster both (inexplicably) named Becky. Jody, a kind eyed mutt with white socks who loved nothing more than going on “walks” with us even though we lived in the woods and she was free to walk wherever and whenever she pleased. And the cat I got from the neighbor as a kitten, a free spirit who used to disappear for three months at a time and come back missing half an ear, or a patch of fur, and demand to be fed four times a day until she saw fit to up and leave again. I always think of that spot as it looks in summer time. The lilacs bursting purple and buttercream, with a heady fragrance you can smell all the way from out in the field. It’s funny how many things about my childhood are wrapped up in that smell. The plushness of new grass. The squeak of trampoline springs. Kitten claw scratches on tanned arms. Filling the hamster cage with fresh sawdust on Saturdays. Swimming with the dog across the river. They’re too sweet – the lilacs – almost. Too sweet to last, certainly. So sweet that they hint at their own demise, the decay to come, the fading into memory.

Bellows’ Next of Kin releases March 23rd. Preorder it here.