Black Cat Lane, 11/22/63

On that night, way past

Halloween's lit grin,

Scant hours since

The President's murder 

In a Dallas slow lane,

My father drove us

To a movie

In Panorama City.

On the ride home

Our car entered

The intersection

Of Balboa and Lassen,

And struck a black cat

In the middle

Of the road.

I screamed as I watched

The kitty flail and writhe

In the headlight beams,

I had never witnessed

Such suffering before.

My parents told my sister

To hold me down in the seat

So I couldn't see,

They laughed at my

Hysterics.

On that night, way past

Halloween's lit grin,

I beheld 

Death's dance,

Was chastened.

Laura Stickney 2017

photograph of Lassen and Balboa intersection,

San Fernando Valley, by Laura Stickney, 2017