I wouldn’t want to be
one of those guys from KDOT
who drives along the highways
all day long in a big orange dump truck
picking up the mangled remains
of roadkill from the blacktop.
Grim work that, scraping up the dead
with a long-handled shovel—skunk
and turtle, coyote and deer, snake
and armadillo, even the odd
cat and dog—like some Stygian Noah
making his way back to the depot
under the cover of darkness
with his cargo of animal souls
en route to the fiery furnace
that will be their final home.