dog days out

It was a good job you couldn’t see the skin on her neck,
so bruised from the restraining collar,
he had clipped and pinned her to the table so roughly,
running the smooth back of the brush over her,
head to tail,
turning it over to tease out,
a mouth breather normally he would keep his lips tight,
his grip gentle yet firm,
the lingering smell of body odour clinging to his shirt,
collar, tie,
concentrating far too much on the ears