Cost

by Sean Sexton

I’ll call him Hector—

the black and white kitten

crushed in a Sunday street 

I stopped and turned 

around to lift & place 

in the bower of a front yard 

shrubbery as once, 

guided by Hermes, Priam

sought out and 

kissed in ransom, 

the hands of a man 

who’d slain his son, 

that he might 

collect and bear  

the body home, 

and lay him to peace.