Ceremony

At the end of the story, When the plague has arrived, The performance can begin. Displacing flimsy heaven And its contraptions, now Come practical urgencies: Getting the price of salvation, Divined from the guts of birds Or from cruciform insects. Like The savior Oedipus, kittens Are histrionic: defiant swagger Then ritual flight in terror. “The soul of the cat is the form Of its body.” In Christendom, Civic mourners were hired To walk the stricken city ways Chanting: “I am sick, I must Die