Death Has An Ugly Face

We found him wedged between the fence
and the side of our house, hopelessly stuck
I do not know how long he had been there
With some effort, he was pried out of his deadly trap
I then saw that his back legs were paralyzed

How did this happen?   Was he trying
to leap the fence and missed, falling down
into the crack where he was stuck?
Cats don't leap and miss.  They don't fall into
impossibly small places and get stuck

We carefully carried him into the house and
laid him on my bedroom floor.  I realized that
He was mortally wounded, though not one mark
was on the outside of his body.  He was dying
from the inside

Hoping that he would quietly slip away
I stroked his silky yellow head and he wrapped
His front paws around my wrist. Then little by little
his suffering increased, and death began to show

It's ugly face. Though I tried to banish the specter
It just continued to loom larger
Finally in frustration, I asked God, did he really feel that
this suffering was necessary?  What could it possibly prove

It was not but a minute later, my little friend Ty was gone
Such a freak accident. Such a sad thing. My toy poodle
came in to see her playmate, and then slowly backed
out of the room.  She saw the ugly face, too