JUNGLE GUTS

Potential Toxoplasmosis from Kittens and a Severed Tendon

by Johnnie JungleGuts 

Spring 2008

I.
it seemed like a good idea
I took you all sniveling and crying from your stinking prison
what they called a maternity ward, a hell on earth
they didn’t know you were sick
you didn’t tell me either
so I took you home, I gave you the downstairs bathroom/food
I was so ready to be your mom

but then I hurt myself
which I must explain in the most unpoetic fashion
for the purpose of this narrative
I dropped a glass shelf on my ankle, severing the tendon that allowed me to flex my foot
upwards towards the rest of me. 
I couldn’t take care of you at all and it made me hate my parents

I’m going to have major surgery, I’m going to be handicapped for a little while or maybe a long while if things don’t work out
I’m not allowed to leave the house.
and then you all started sneezing.
at first it was the calico, with the bent tail
her eye became caked with yellow snot and it closed up
the tabby would have sneezing fits constantly, for two or three minutes
soon all of you were sick
the calico spews dhiarrhea everywhere she goes
The vet gives us the antibiotics, the pink stuff
I hold your heads and force the little syringe down your throats
you all hate the medicine, you try to push it out with your tongues,
your mouths are constantly smeared hot pink
like poorly applied lipstick, like you’re all the joker

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