The Cat Basket

It’s likely to end
In a garbage dump,
One of the middens
That will never be
Well-excavated,

Archeologists
Having gone extinct.
The bereaved owners
Of the cat who died
After thirteen years

Gave it to neighbors
With two youthful cats,
But the young cats sniffed
At the old cat’s scent
And more or less shrugged.

It’s been left sitting
By a good window,
But it’s never used.
Soon the new owners
Will throw it away

To outlast them all,
A crushed artifact
In the enduring
Strata of waste heaps
Weathered into cliffs.