CALAMITY

My father, pulling a dead raccoon

from under the shed, thanks me for the small

 

hours I spend with my mother on the phone

every Sunday. Speaking is an honest labor

 

with each word going brittle as the rotten rib cage.

“The trick,” my father says, “is to pull out slowly.

 

When they are this far along, the body will fall apart,

linger.” He has almost disappeared, his denim

 

blue back-of-knee signaling that he will stretch

further into the stink, after the bit of jawbone.

 

“An animal will face west when it lays down to die.”

I can’t say I believe him, though the thought

 

reassures some portion of instinct I carry

with me. Arms outstretched. At a distance.