Page 156 - Dark Matter Issue5 Part II

Felicity died on a cold metal table

On a towel she lay unshaken

but uncalm from my perspective

she breathed a sigh, looked

from the table toward the walls, pale

and unmoving, she was a stone

or so I wanted her to be, stoic

and free from my misery, the veterinarian’s

needle touched her leg, pointed

to the place it would enter and stop

her heart, I held her head unnecessarily

still, she had no intention

of running and couldn’t know the darkness

as I imagined it coming, solid

and impassible, I wanted to see light in her

I wanted a final flinch from her muscles’

small slack ropes, her eyes did not close finally

but couldn’t see, the room was the same, cold table without

a place to go after the body has given up

her hair, black and white, fell out and came home with me

to the bed where I lay with the orange tabby