all of your lives have been addicts

my cat
has turned
my front porch

into a graveyard

as if to say:
this is what we need

but tonight
she tried to lick my claws
back to hands

& I said to her:

"I do not have 9 lives
to spend on the bathroom floor
with 13-hour insomnia

can't we just kill the mockingbirds
pull the concrete
out of our throats
& get this dying
over with
already"

but
she's got 8 lives down
& doesn't answer questions twice