true story 3

once- when i was like
seventeen or eighteen
or something- i had
to drag a dead cat
out of my family's
pool for swimming

what happened was
this: i went out back
to have a cigarette
when i noticed
a strange, sick
black-tan-grey
lump of flesh
floating

in the water- it looked loathsomely similar
to a gigantic lump of human hair

upon closer look and inspection, much to my
revulsion and repugnance, i realized
that a cat had died (last night) in our
swimming pool

it may sound disgusting and odious
but my first reaction was to grab
my camera and photograph
the dead cat

i put out my cigarette and ran
inside, i told my mother what
had happened- she calmly
replied:

"it most definitely cannot remain in there,
if you remove its corpse from the water,
daughter, i will buy you a two-pack
of underwear, i promise"

a bit taken aback, initially,
i eventually agreed to do
the deed

on account of needing new pairs
of underwear

i went outside and grabbed a pool cleaning utensil
and a shovel, then began picking up or rather lifting
the dead cat from the water- it was extremely heavy,
much too heavy for me to carry the way i was trying

so, i took a breather- tried not to cry (for, even though
it doesn't seem so, the entire time i was really sad
even more sad later when i discovered the cat
had no tags; although, i admit i was a bit
thankful for this, because can you imagine
knocking on a neighbours door and telling
them that awful story?) and reevaluated
the situation

finally, with a lot of disgust and agony,
i was successful in carefully, properly,
extracting the dead feline body
from the place for swimming
and discarding of it, most
unceremoniously, in
a green garbage
can thing

and, my mother did hold up her end of the bargain, i
received fresh under garments

the following week i left for college

some days i regret not photographing it,
though, cause honestly it would have
made a powerful photo

don't you think/agree?