There is a cat sitting on the wall
can be seen through the open window
soothingly licking its legs
like when his belly is filled with food
there is a birdcage in the room, opened
but there is no bird to be found
a coffee-stained cup, yet to be emptied
unfinished cigarette still giving smoke
sitting on the chair, a lifeless boy
with a grape-sized hole in his neck
within his hands, a trapped bird revealed
he must have been playing when he was shot
with shock must have squeezed his hands so hard
both of their lives are gone at the instance same
yet when I first entered the room
I thought
cat must have eaten the bird