Round is the shape of infection

*My chest aches
with the roundness of yearning
and expands like a cyst.

It's summer, sultry,
and I distract myself with
animals and sweat.

The red cat's ear is pregnant, taut,
A stretched football of skin, a hair egg,
at every meal a little bigger.

A stapled scab, black
crust matte fur, and I
suspect a fight:

Some bigger cat, claws unsheathed,
unmatched.
The vet says

in all likelihood
the cat did it to himself:
One sharp claw and one interminable itch.

My cat book says, An abscess is a deep wound
with a very small opening.
Most punctures don't bleed much.

They seal themselves off from greater harm
with pus around the site.
Round is the shape of infection.

The vet says
this abnormality, this ball, this pregnant anomaly
will resolve itself over time.

The cat will scratch, the wound will ooze, refill.
So it is with your section of my heart.
Every night I scatch the wound

seal it off
and in the morning
clean the blood and try again.


*Diana, if you're still playing along at home, this is the second to last in the series.