Kitten

I watched a kitten eat meat from tin can

Set down outside refrigerator box

That sheltered there a sickly, homeless man

Who wore no winter coat, no shoes, no socks.

The man--gaunt, thin, and pale--was cold as death.

The kitten, thick and fat with fluffy fur.

The man in cough and wheeze still fought for breath,

The kitten, young and spry, from belly purred.

I wondered of the two, which most still lived:

The man with sallow skin who choked with wind,

Or little beast who upon flesh did feast.
Though man approaching death, with life still strived,

The kitten, belly fat, still fed from tin

And life and death considered not the least.