You were a perfect symbol of life,

Come in the form of a bedraggled baby.

Your mother pushed with all her strength

And suffered so much pain.

Yet that wasn't enough to save you

And so your soul escaped

Before it should have.

You slipped into the world so suddenly-

But it was too late.

Still and rigid

Floppy and limp.

All but dead.

Never alive.

Gone.

Why is it that you were not allowed to experience this world?

Why is that you were not allowed to mew in return to your mother's purrs?

Why is it that you were not allowed to nestle for warmth beside her milk swollen belly?

Why is it that the most innocent of all

Pay and fall?

I watch your tiny body,

Hoping to see a paw twitch,

Or your chest rise.

But even the gentle nudges of a desperate mother cannot wake you from this sleep.

I will miss you, kitten that I never knew.

Kimba, the kitten's mother, is still washing it right now. She doesn't know its dead.