From the Poetic Asides blog:
For today’s prompt, write a damage poem. Since my baby brother is a storm chaser, my mind usually jumps straight to storm damage. However, there’s more than the physical damage created by things like hurricanes, trains, and war planes. There’s also the emotional and psychological damage we inflict, survive, and conceal. The bright side of any damage is that it can be transformed into a poem.
The Damage Done
for Mittina
The damage was done
by the car
to her feline body.
It was fortunate
she didn’t suffer,
her mind extinguished
before perceiving
the final pain.
You ask how I can bear death
if i don’t believe in an afterlife
and I can’t answer
because it can’t be borne.
The flesh sloughs away,
leaving no core
no soul, no mind
without a body.
To employ poetic cliche
we write of death transformed,
feeding new lives,
but it’s no consolation
to the mind now gone
the pain felt not in its body
but in other minds loved
and left behind.
Bartholomew Barker, Poet 