ROADKILL

Cat Heath

Crushed for curious wanderings, astray
from the safety of the sky, the concrete
cold, miles of manmade, unforgiving grey.
No pity is shown for misguided feet.
Her wings spread wide, once capable of flight:
now keep her grounded, flush to the tarmac.
They drive by, apathetic to her plight,
offering only a perfunctory lookback
at her flesh and her feathers and her bones.
A man comes to scrape her off the highway,
into black plastic with other unknowns
whose claws and paws also led them astray.
Race past vermin and pests deemed beneath us;
label the roadkill disposable creatures.