We spent our evening 
sharing a meal at Ramsey’s
fried catfish, soup beans,
fried green tomatoes and slaw.
We laughed so hard remembering 
her childhood, stories of dropped
rocks, sister scaring, misbehaving. 
We drove back to her apartment 
to take a walk and discovered 
a dead rabbit, in the middle
of the street in front of her place. 
She couldn’t bear to look 
and I couldn’t bear her sadness 
so armed with a box, a bag and 
some cardboard, I  removed 
the dismembered animal 
from the pavement, thinking 
back to my childhood when
I would watch my grandfather 
clean rabbit for grandma to
cook in a huge pot, adding 
homemade dumplings when 
the meat was tender. 
I told her this and recalled 
how thoughtful a hunter my
grandfather was and how he
would have seen this as a 
waste and disrespectful to
the animal. 
We continued our walk and talked 
of  time past, present and shared.

KW
6/23/24