*A very short story? A prose poem? A fragment – whatever it is (I vote for it being a prose poem), it’s terrific, and from Irish writer Sara Baume. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Baume
You want:
a decked roof garden with miniature palms and pine patio furniture, a butterfly trellis and a couple of evergreen climbers, an ornamental crab-apple tree in a frosted glass pot, its branches all weighted with baubly fruit.
I want:
To paint sun glow weather-shield over your pine, to ram whirligigs into your frosted pots and dangle great clanking wind chimes from your trellis, and to pick your crab-apples, to skin and chop and soup and set them into a bitter, piss-coloured jelly.
You want:
a golden retriever with all of its papers, even if he’s too big for your roof garden; a bouncing, wagging, dashing dog to accessorise your decking, your magnolia walls, your chrome car; a blonde dog with a tag in the shape of a cartoon bone and a name like Jack or Max or Sammy.
I want:
a three-legged mongrel with a traumatic past, rheumy eyes and a croaky cough, who came from the pound and was a few hours from being put down; a tortoiseshell dog with a knitted scarf instead of a collar and a name like Mr. Widdles or Bogart or Beagley-Weagley.