Jake's Flea Market

a pregnancy begins with
a decision to keep a kitten

one that’s 
left behind in the middle of 
a summer night in which people empty
an apartment across the sidewalk
into a single box on a pickup truck

a kitten that comes in the colour
of a sky pregnant with rain
 
one that mews and scratches
claws at the outside of the entrance door and
at the dream of water dividing that wakes
into an awareness of an urgent need to piss

the pregnancy begins when it’s allowed   in

of the infinite number of feline sperm the one
that scampers through the door and sprints
to the center of the living room makes
itself at home and expands
twelve years into a full term 
cat that never leaves the suite until its corpse is
carried out and the cat’s
absence is born