[FIJI]

"Between Two Breaths" By Lu Hart

They slip into my hands
Sputtering, gasping at the shock of air, muzzles questing blindly.
Scent and touch are their world:
Mother's scent, human scent, milk scent.
Warm mother's flanks, warm human hands, warm bedding.
Plump and sleek and golden
They breathe my scent and I breathe theirs;
Lovers from the first breath.

They slip out of my hands.
Muzzles grey now with age, nostrils widening softly at my familiar scent.
Their eyelids close gently while I stroke their flanks.
My hands are cold this time-- or is it just that my heart is chilled?
Their scent segues to death, and mine to weeping.

And between the first breath
and the last breath
There is never enough time.