Dear reader, I gathered these for my own prompt "Pets I have known." I couldn't write a poem this week, so I chose three from the past that feature Sabrina and Mariah, my twin black cats. Read one of them or all. Your presence here is welcome! Love, Susan
1) After Abandonment
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| Sabrina and Mariah |
My two bonded adult black cats take days
to come out from under the furniture.
Why should they trust this new household as home
after five years of insecurity?
How to forgive them for not loving me
immediately? How to be patient?
They mirror my reactions to bad breaks
that hold me lonely and isolated
under the furniture of my own life
I’ve hewn from pine and built quite sound and strong.
How to forgive me for not loving them
unconditionally? How be patient?
I know distrust holds back fullness of faith
humility would bring if I could swim
within the stream of human poverty
once more, take off my clothes and go under.
How to let go of outworn survival
techniques which keep us from knowing new depths?
I ask the two black cats to come on out
from hiding. Let me hold you, please, let me
be of service to you—And love me, please,
don’t make me beg. Don’t make me wait for you.
How to be patient with each other’s fears?
How to negotiate our timeliness?2) Cat Love
The moment twin rescue kitties decide
I’d left and returned often enough to
claim they own me, their personal masseuse,
head-scratcher servant who wakes to feed them.
The moment they sit in their tallest pose—
echoing each other's blackness—waiting for me.
The moment I submit to their purring
and linger longer in the lounging chair.
That’s when I recall waiting a long time
for the affection of a wild thing,
and I sit tall, too, so the three of us
are perfectly parallel in desire.
3) Something to Believe In
The black things running out of your peripheral vision?
Those are your cats, both wondering why you give up
playing catch-the-fast-thing after only two minutes, why
you are listening to songs from the 70s and 80s,
looking in ones you used to love for ones you can believe.
You wonder that those years were time spent and not wasted—
but what are you doing now? Make more memories. Make salad.
Look into the neglected corners of your day for what you
will someday wish you had lived now. Stand and dance, and
play catch-the-fast-thing, too, with your furry guardians.
For my prompt "Pets I have known" at What's Going On?
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