Zucca

An original poem!

Written for one of my getyourwordsout yahtzee prompts: manqué
(adj. having failed to become what one might have been; unfulfilled. e.g.: "a starlet manqué")

I started writing this one without knowing what it was about; then I started crying. "Oh. It's about that." (Why is it always about grief?)

Koji

Stillness
Such bright promise
What could have been, now lost
Bright eyes, soft paws, insistent cries
Koji
Wonder cut short in tragedy
Fought hard, yet unyielding
A tiny life
Faded

~



When I adopted my cat Dora in 2022 (she'll be four years old in one week) I actually adopted two kittens; Dora who was 11 weeks old, and Koji who was 8 weeks old. He had a course of precautionary antibiotics to finish out (his littermate had gotten sick at the shelter, so they were 'just in case') but was healthy.

I spent that first week watching him closely, but aware antibiotics are rough on the system; I hoped once he finished them all would be well, and he was energetic and generally healthy. Then I spent two weeks fighting desperately to get him to eat, anything; he had subcutaneous fluids and several other meds and high-calorie gel and. . .

Nothing was quite enough. If he'd been older he might have been able to make it - but there was nothing wrong with him, either. He just . . . faded.