"Dogs or Diploma?"

Just Pups is where most of my time was spent
playing with puppies under incandescent
lights that replaced the sun. Five days a week
I would watch the youngsters come in and freak
over the Morkies, Wheatens and Teddy Bears.

As school continued, work got really hard.
Piles of homework stretched at least a yard
into the sky. I thought it would be fine.
Balancing work and school made a fine line
that came to be one of my major cares.

All of a sudden, work began to slow.
Then one by one, the girls began to go
their separate ways- to college or to jobs
that paid like when people once came in mobs.
No longer were we to work shifts in pairs.

By ourselves we’d open and we’d close.
Flying solo had its cons and its pros.
For one, all of the bonuses were ours,
but we would walk alone out to our cars.
Working alone added to my despairs.

A big decision I now had to make:
focus more on school work, or go and take
the risk of fifty puppies and myself
being burgled. Should i stop playing elf?
Perhaps it’s time to leave my cuddly wares.

I talked it over with my mom and sis
we decided it would be worse to miss
the joys of senior year then have a job
that i loved but was scared it could be robbed.
School work won out despite my woeful tears.

And so I quit.