This is a poem i wrote for a little kitten that someone had abandoned in a field, that I found dying after a fire.

the beginning a blur
thrown into a world
harsh and cold and unforgiving
the grasses above
wave in the wind
give meager shelter
crawling to the thickest
of the bobbing star thistle heads
scared and empty
they sway above

warm summer morning
first and last
summer of your life
the delta breeze
fresh through the air
you heard noises and
you burrowed in,
into the soft dead grass
hiding from the unknown
orange flickers
biting black smoke
swirl above
and quickly engulf.

the native rabbits
knew by instinct
ran to shelter
the native grasses
sunk their roots
sheltered by the soil, dormant
to prepare for next rain
all around
the mice prepared
deep underground
for the post fire harvest
of green revival

but you, alone
could never understand
thrust into an alien world
the soft grasses
give no shelter
the tearing flames
of only pain
and emptiness
ripped you apart

all was black
the life force within you spent
the fire past on
crying for relief
crying for an end
i picked you up
still steaming with heat
without an end to the pain
i felt your burning heat
through the leather gloves
carried you
across a mile of black
steaming hell
to the edge
to the sluggish creak

we looked in your eyes
saw only pain
and incipient death
the pain was ended
in seconds
and you passed
leaving only
a twitching shell

you were born
into a harsh world
you could never understand
thrown into
a dry dead plain
with no escape
your brief life
ended in the flames
to some the fire brought life
but to you the end
the end of a concience
a dim awareness
of the irony
of being placed
where you were fated
to die in the empty hands
of randomness
of brutality
of a sick fairness
enveloped you
like the flames
left you near the creek
to melt into the soil