staccato conversation on
our walk to preschool
first observe the dead rat
laid out in the gutter
long tail ribbed like a worm skin
next pass the bat
pinned to the ground
by gravity’s inevitability
then the carcass of a cat
and the howl of a man crumpled in the gutter
his lover hovering unable to cross grief’s divide
return to the rattatattat of our conversation
rat bat cat rat cat bat