I see her taking
her last breaths.
Body frail,
she gently grabs my hand
as I pat her.
“Cancer,” the vet said.
She has been with us
for fifteen years,
sitting by my side
when I had my morning coffee,
jumping on the table
to position herself
on the paper I was reading.
No more pulse.
On the news,
Bianca Andreescu
becomes the first Canadian
to reach the singles final
in the US Open.
In Zimbabwe,
Robert Mugabe
died at 95.
And from the Bahamas,
first pictures
show the devastation
left by Hurricane Dorian.
Communities razed,
piles of splintered wood
where houses used to stand.
More than 60,000
need food, water.
Official death toll
30 and rising.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, examines current events in the Blacklock’s tradition each and every Sunday)
