not for the good, not for the wicked, and not for those in between
it was 01:30 AM
but he would never
know
The last time he had
a watch
was when he got jumped
in the streets
for it
He didn’t hide it well
enough. Wanted
to pawn it
for liquor money
but all he drank
that night was
his own blood
This night however
he didn’t have
even that
He wasn’t in the
streets anymore
but in the cool basement
of some abandoned
building
scheduled to be demolished
A noise woke him
up
His heart calmed down
only when his eyes
saw that it wasn’t human
He’d rather
be visited by a ghost
but it was just the black
cat that roamed aroun
the building. She always
found something
to eat in
the dumpsters nearby
and was friendly to
humans, even
accepted pats sometimes
“I wish I could be
like you,” he told her
in a ragged whisper
The cat meowed
and leaped about
through the rubble,
disappearing into the dark
just like
his hopes
It’s hard to have
hopes without forgiveness
of self
he lacked that
most of all
The cat didn’t seem too
mad at him
all those weeks ago
when he stumbled into
this place which
was like her home, drunk
and famished
and desperate and
half dead
she was different the first
time they met
Much more bloated
pregnant
and about to give
birth
Which she did
then and there, over a
patch of filling foam
among the rubble
she had about seven
kittens
and a great deal of pain
and he was so
hungry and
so void of rationality
from the drink
eating away at his insides
Just one small
kitten. He took only
one
and held his breath
and closed his eyes
and did
what any starving beast
would do
and now after all
those days
somehow it hurt all
the more
to see that the cat
wasn’t mad at him
She didn’t try to
kill him in
his sleep, to
claw his eyes out
or bite off his
Adam’s apple
she behaved as if nothing
happened
and now his stomach
growled again
like a beast
in pain
There was no ultimate
justice in this
world. Not for the good,
not for the wicked,
and not for those
in between
He closed his eyes
again
and held his breath
***
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