I’ve known them all—the scum that cakes
the innards of the leaking soda machine,
the sticky residue of a removed name tag
on a soft gray sweater, the foul stench
of a dead mutt crushed on the shoulder
of Highway 370, the dried mud trapped
in the tiny lines and crosses on the bottom
of my purple running shoes, the dead worms
that pepper the sidewalk during the heat
of the day, the tick that gorges on my calf—
and they all remind me that the end
is coming, and I will not turn away. I will
not petition for a last-minute reprieve.
I dig the hole deep enough for you
and me. I’ve known you for two decades,
and I will not go alone. You—who tied
my shoes, braided my hair, cooked
my meals, poured my wine, and walked
with me as I increased my daily step count—
are not getting out.

Cat Dixon is the author of What Happens in Nebraska (Stephen F. Austin University Press, 2022) along with six other poetry chapbooks and collections. She is a poetry editor with The Good Life Review. Recent poems published in The Literary Underground, Nude Bruce, and The Rye Whiskey Review. She works full-time at a funeral home and teaches creative writing part-time at the University of Nebraska, Omaha.