Emergency Love Poem #84: Kima

Watching her shake and pant
through a midnight storm
offering tired reassurance
baffled at her panic in

circumstances of total safety.
Who’s watching me
with that same set of eyes?
When I am cowering

in the bathroom
with a roof over my head,
walls and windows around me
a soft bed to lie down in.

Time to fill up her water bowl
so I can remember why I’m alive.
Goddamn Mary Oliver with her
personification of every beating heart.