THE GENTLE PASSING OF A FRIEND
The electric radiators are running in early morning and evening
Now that it is October
And we imagine Mona the Cat closely hanging out next to them
For she knew on what side her warm room
Was buttered;
The jingle of her small bell against her rabies tag
Is silent;
Now, an ornament on a church poster
From a recent thumbprint of God exercise.
The children
Were to think of all the places
Those thumbprints
Are evident.
Up here in the loft
where I am typing,
Dee's poster now is thumb-tacked
Next to the Singer Sewing Machine desktop.
A visual of many visuals in this environment.
But no warmth; no sound.....
We had her while we had her.
Twenty years of fidelity,
Cat food and uncomplained-about
Vet bills,
And the house-keeping that went with all that.
On another wall in this elevated office
Is thumb-tacked the sixty-five year old
Musty black leather collar
Of my first dog, Trooper.
Oh no,
the Dixes don't ever forget their own;
They were and are God's thumbprints.
