Death

I have avoided death
Of other people
All my life

When my grandmother woke me up one night
At 11.40pm
And told me she didn't feel well
As her body felt so light
And yet so heavy
Against my arm
Some part of me knew
She was dying
And so I left the room
And looked away
As they carried her body
On a stretcher
I hid from her
I hid from death

When my cat, Johnny Meowing, was sick
I refused to accept he was too old, too far gone
To be brought back to good health
And wanting him to live a longer life
I left him overnight at a hospital
And so when the call came
The next day
That he had died
A small part of me knew
As I answered that call
From an unsaved number
That it was bad news
And so I wasn't with him as he died
And I never saw his body

Two weeks ago
While I was away from Colombo
We got a call in the morning
One of the kittens had been found dead
And I broke into tears
But when we got home later that day
His tiny body
Had already been buried
So I never had to deal with death
That day

Last week
My luck ran out
And I couldn't avoid death any longer
Another kitten was dead
And I had to lift his tiny lifeless body
Which felt so heavy
And place him in a box
All the while
With tears streaming down my face
As I felt death coat my skin
Crawl into me
And go to sleep in a corner
Waiting for the day it would awake
And get me