Elegy for a Cat

No, I don’t believe in hell, but wish I hadn’t seen her twitch panic at being pierced the needle clawed the iris of the mind’s-eye as the long caterwaul of distress hammered my ears I flinched–

(They said it would soon be over.)

To see her lives spill out her eyes and empty into mine feel the images imprinting on me her executioner and witness oh, now I wish I never saw her wilting in that blank abyss alone.

You needn’t ask now if I believe in purgatory.