Ode to Pets
With a leap, she is on top of the bookcase. A calico miracle.
Striped silly sisters, meowy morning
greeting, collars with tinkling bells, quieted,
nestled next to me, nine o’clock nap.
Black and white, gray, orange, striped, purring,
fluffy, snuggly felines comfort me.
Gato hungers caresses & vittles – repays
with furry strokes. With quivering whiskers and twitching
tail, stalks lizards through glass pane.
A trio of troublemakers, kitchen counter thieves,
easy chair pile on, purring incessantly. Yowling
cats, demanding food; I just fed you. Enough.
Feathered backyard friends chirp endlessly
and sometimes leave a present on my Toyota windshield.
What’s that white glob! Black and white spot
against the sky drops the muddy ball
into the jacuzzi and looks up. Shih tzu
fur monsters, one golden Wookiee lookalike
and the other, a black and white hobbit. A shiny
black hotdog, with a See’s Candy nose, liquorish
black paws -Barks at anything that moves.
Jet black wisps gather in the corner–swept
away and long since turned gray–now
gathering only in the corners of my mind. The fondest
of all: childhood pets, immaculate and perfect
because they are long dead: three snakes,
two parakeets, a toad, a gecko, seven
crawdads from the river.
Original prompt: Today, please write one line of poetry about 10 words long that describes your pet – what it looks like, what your pet does or how your pet brings you comfort, etc. NO NAMES OF PETS, please – just describing words
by Doug McCulloh, Frances Vasquez, Janet Alexander, Jacqueline Mantz, Cati Porter, Juanita Mantz, Gudelia Vaden, Natalie Champion, Rick Champion, Nan Friedley, Julianna Cruz, Kris Lovekin, Cindi Neisinger
Inlandia: A Literary Journey 