Callisto

Jupiter's miniature giant space hamster
he didn't bite me, like those fucking gerbils

when he died,
I made a pyre of rosewood and gasoline
and burned him in the yard

I thought there would be a sterile and uniform ash
that I could spread in the marigold and geranium

but his flesh peeled away
leaving only a husk

a wad of pink and blackened flesh
for the garbage can