Taking A Ride

The smell was horrid
like rotten meat
or like the dog rolled
in something dead
then we realized
the smell, rancid
our old cat
had some kind of
organ failure
we didn't know
the recent weight loss
not from old age
as we had guessed
the Friday before Christmas
and all through the house
somber
I had the job of going
to the vet
she was Mike's cat
he couldn't do the deed
he wept before I arrived
with the carrier
in one hand and a Kleenex
in the other
during the whole drive she cried
but she didn't know where
she was going
she only knew
that she was moving in a car
I cried because I knew
where she was going
oh ignorance is mostly
always bliss oh the knowing
of not knowing where the
car will take us
for that last ride of our life
or for the best ride of our life
only the driver knows and
has the burden of knowing
of weeping for knowing and
knowing there's nothing they
can do about it or change it
just like when we were kids
and continued to ask
are we there yet
only to be told
not yet
if she had known she wouldn't
have asked so many times
she would have rather not known
when the time had come
at least she went without
the knowledge and
we were able to weep for her
so that she may run and play
in her own playground above