This afternoon
under a drizzling gray sky
I buried a kitten—
a kitten I fed this morning
A kitten I picked up yesterday
as I was walking under a sunny sky
whose cries my ears could not ignore
whose desolate thrownness pierced my heart
A kitten whose eyes, ears, and fur I cleaned
from all the fly eggs that covered them
like tiny grains of rice
that smelled like rotten fish
A kitten who slept silently
beside the warm bottle of water
I placed over the old towel inside the carrier
where she rested a full day of sleep.
I fed her this morning
gave her a name
thought of beautiful thoughts of our future
thought of telling my friends about her
But this beautiful thing was thrown twice
first by God
and a second time by man
just a few days after being born.
Not many of us could have survived that.
No, not this kitten
not this beautiful thing
that this world is too vicious for.
I buried a kitten under a hole I dug
with a shovel I borrowed in a lawn I don’t own
there amongst the grass
and all other things thrown.