how to wake up from a sad slumber which plagued every corner of your life

Not yet ready to slip

Through the open screen door,

Streetlight reflected

In the quiet fire of 4 a.m.,

When I first learned love

Was showing up,

Every day, at the same hour,

Small gestures between us,

Unaware of how it might end.

Now, as the dust settles,

I too can settle,

See myself clearly for the first time—

A woman willing to sacrifice

Four months

For someone so small,

In the largest world

I’ve ever known.

How did we never speak,

Yet you taught me how to live?

You were barely months old

When we met.

All I needed was to slip out
the screen door of

My human form

And help three sisters-
Three kittens I could save.