Raw Kittenhood

My little kitten that I helped by bottle supplementing inspired a poem. It is also published on my Patreon account here. Read her story here.

Twenty feet away, beyond the door,

Five kittens start their brand-new lives.

I listen, and try hard to let them do their job,

Not make it mine.

Give them a week and they’ll be cute; tonight

Their tiny, mighty bodies

Strive

With all the fire of urgency they brought into this life.

There is no fluff, no cuteness, only this:

Get there. Find mom, find milk, or die; there’s nothing else.

Who knew the tiny ones, still

Birth-wet from their mother’s womb, came armed with

All the power of Earth, of Life itself.

And, sometimes, only sometimes, it’s enough.

—copyright © 2022 by Anna Lisa Goebel