An Ode to My Cat

Daisy – Caroline Thompson

An Ode to My Cat

Julia Burnette

Marbled blue eyes, no judgement

Of my smeared slash lipstick and sweaty straw hair.

What pulls me:

A swirling galaxy that welcomes me

As you patter, figure eights around my legs.

My worries melt with

Bird wing beats of your tiny finite heart.

Your liquid body, the weight

nooked into the nest of my arms,

And cadenced purr

That shimmies into my cells and soul.

In the heavy dark of the night,

Bad-breath love bites sting.

A forever scar on my nose.

I don’t love:

The unapologetically spewed supper;

Raw chicken livers wreaking havoc on my unfinished homework;

Sharp sour iron gruel masking the smell

Of my old gym shoes.

The droning, restless pleas outside my bedroom door

That keeps the veil of sleep away.

And yet…

What I wouldn’t give to keep you next to me.

Your static fur, soft sponge belly,

Soaking the salt of my sorrows.

And still…

You vibrate your purr, the quiet rhythmic rumble.

Paw in my hand, your head pressed to mine,

Holding my heartbreak.