Captain
emaciated dumb thirst orphan
human father passed you like a plush
toy among his children
(and the family dog)
because:
“When I was a kid, we played
with raccoons all the time”
Euthanize the animal, says HD,
scruff, your mother held you
rabies is transmitted via saliva.
bless your tracheal air and its passing
through dead blood river
washing the incised darkness
underneath esophagus you praised
each morsel in your mind
Careful severing the spine, vet says,
juvenile first vertebra, razor
spinal fluid, the other transmitter.
memory, strange is memory
we save this raccoon ‘s brain
for the State we will send
a skull away from the body
no one will claim
Author Bio: Matthew Brady Klitsch received his MFA in Poetry from Drew University. His poems have appeared in 5AM, Colorado Review, The Pinch, The Florida Review, & Nimrod, among others. He lives in New Jersey where he works in a veterinary hospital and has previously worked in animal welfare and wildlife rehabilitation.