Sheltered Kid at a Cat Funeral

My mother insisted the cat be buried
but we had no land of our own
so I paid a man to box her up, laughing,
under a tree he had grown.
The burial took too long for my liking.
My mother, too sad to appear.
“From ashes to ashes, dust to dust” –
The cat doesn’t know we are here!

The cat had been loved more than she could handle
and rode that wave into the sky.
Her heart was enlarged with it, that’s why she left us
alone, just my mother and I.
Of course I don’t blame her, for mom’s love was stifling.
The cat and I lived much the same.
We well-kept possessions, we beautiful playthings,
too precious to go up in flames.