On Loving Something Hopeless
by Christiana Drevets
i was thinking of those days lying bayside
kicked back up among the marsh weeds with our cigarettes
searching each pocket for lighters
and watching the hawks fly overhead
once you asked
why do the same birds keep circling us
and then a hawk came down with a cat in its claws
and dropped it in a bush at our feet
it was mewling and matted and leaking blood and fleas
so you wrapped it in your jacket and we raced to the car
then at home you sat for hours with the cat in the tub
picking every swollen bug off with tweezers
you asked
what will we do with him
even though we could see he was sick
and wouldn’t last the next day
the next day we drove to the bay to smoke cigarettes
you itched your hands and the same birds circled as before