Sakura

I've heard you shouldn't
look a cat in the eyes
because it scares them.


I find it funny, then,
that the cat with the most reason to fear
isn't capable of meeting my gaze.

Her eye was broke when we got her, see,
a shattered, milky marble
and I imagine her flung across a room
and I imagine oak panels and molding
or maybe a table
in an aging house
and I can't help but think
that the mottled skin of her neck
where they had shaved her for the IV
was the purple of old bruises
and that this is why
she hates so pure
and bonds so strong
and cannot look me in the eyes.