When Does a Body become a Corpse?

As I was driving home I saw in my headlights

A dead cat in the road. 

I swerved to pass our connection. 

& As I looked in the rearview mirror. 

I saw those that followed, follow suit. 

Your Eyes Gleamed like Topezes, 

Your Fur a Beautiful Ginger. 

and as I ran I asked. 

I would have swerved if you were dead

I would have swerved if you were alive. 

And can I seperate a difference. 

I can still see your humanity in your still cooling corpse.

You are not yet NOT an entity. 

And I wonder where that line ends. 

When you are no longer a person

but a thing; 

No longer an animal but an object. 

and if that distinction is purely made up in my mind. 

as an echo of empathy and love. 

 

and so I serve.

I choose not to disacrate this holy site. 

This old backroad between houses.

I do it without thinking. 

I do it with such certainty

because if you are dead or alive.

I cannot see the difference.