Haunting Memory

The Cats

Waiting

For her son

To come home

She said

Have the cats been fed.

Have the cats been fed?

No, they’re dead,

Have the cats been fed

Was in her head,

Have the cats

Been fed

Is all she said

Now that

Her son was

Dead.

(I was a newspaper reporter in 1968 assigned to interview a woman after her son was killed in Vietnam. I wrote this last week in memory of an event I’ll never forget.)