Aghast

Here is why I don't write open,
Honest poems: I dropped off Sarah
At a grassy concert in the evening,

In a small town, our small daughter
Asleep in her old, stained car seat
Behind me, and I waved and drove

Away through the meandering
Recreators and recreational
Vehicles, all intersecting without

Touching or knowing, and then
A black cat ran out, across traffic
And got somehow caught in the car

Just in front of me, not crushed,
Not still, not miraculously untouched
But flipping, frantically, furiously,

An incredulous black rag doll
Of a suffering cat on the pavement
Just in front of my vehicle, paused,

In horror and cowardice, watching,
Pretending to myself to be
Innocent and deciding,

Before I carefully drove over,
My wide stance and high clearance
Avoiding the misery entirely, or so

I thought until I saw, in my rear view,
The stilled black body, the white car
Stopping to get out and lift the corpse.