Photography © Edward S. Gault

 

Chocolate

I believe it is Chocolate that I remember the most.
Your first, in a long line of hamsters.
You had the complete set up
the cage,
               the wheel,
                                the little house,
                                                          and all the toys.
We would take him out of the cage to hold him, and to play
– but he was a prisoner, if a high class one.
With all that, he would still go stir crazy,
and need to get out, so he escaped.
Actually, two or three times.
And he was fast.
Heaven forbid he ever get under the couch!
I found him on the stairs once, which made it easy.
I wasn’t as quick.
Chocolate had been with us for three years
When he got sick.
We took him to a neighbor who was a vet.
She prescribed something
we could give him in his food.
Assuming we could get him to eat.
Days passed.
No improvement.
We were on an errand one night,
and got back late.
First thing in the door, and you checked on Chocolate.
You took him out, he was curled in your lap.
Then he moved a bit, and looked up at us,
as if to say goodbye.
That’s what he waited for,
to say “Goodbye”.
Then the light went out of his eyes.

 

Edward S. Gault is a poet and fine arts photographer living in Brighton, Massachusetts. His work has appeared in Oddball Magazine, Spectrum, Wilderness House Literary Review, Interlude, Currents, and Encore. His poetry collection, Airhead and Other Poems was published this year by Read and Green Books.