This is my cat, Maurice’s poem. He died a few months ago after about 17 years. He was a black cat born on October 31st. I’ve shared it with a few friends. In some respects it’s the first poem I wrote in years, simply because it’s different than the other poems I’ve written in the past couple of years. I did steal the idea from Billy Collins; he wrote a poem through his dog’s voice. Why I would steal anything from that guy, someone who accused me of being a simile machine I have no idea. Poet laureate—eh, what does he know. Kidding--it was a useful comment; not for the poem we were talking about but….
Pet me, you fool
Why did you call me Maurice?
It’s an okay name
but even though you remember
your 7th grade
French dictée
your pronunciation, save tien,
is intelligible.
When others asked why you named me Maurice
you said that I told you that was my name,
I did no such thing
I didn’t talk to you for at least two weeks,
and you named me after only 2 days.
People kept leaving your condo
and your life,
what happened to that 1st girl
that you lived with?
The one that was allergic to me,
but loved me almost as much as you.
After my first 11 months
she stayed in bed a lot
got skinny
bloated up
right before she disappeared.
She smelled of chemicals,
she left one day
with a long thin tube in her arm
and never came back.
I liked her,
hoped I’d see her again.
Then there was that woman that came
every few months for five years,
once she stayed for two weeks
and on the14th she cried and screamed at you.
I thrust a claw in her leg,
she was annoying and I thought you might like that
but you cried that night,
and then again for her years later
so perhaps the claw thing was not a good idea.
Then there was the guy with dreds
he stayed for 9 months,
I liked him and his youthfulness.
You two spun a lot of music,
our condo was the happiest it had been
since that 1st girl
but maybe it was because you two
smoked a lot of pot.
I liked teasing him, pretending
I was a crazed cat.
Once I cornered him
and two friends,
he propped up his mattress
barricaded all of them
in a corner.
How about that woman
who came and sat next to you
while you endlessly played
that damn computer game?
She’d sit silently
for hours watching
until you cried,
she and I talked a lot with our eyes
about the 1st girl.
I liked her too
she smoked too much.
Then my step brother
that dog stayed with us for 5 years,
you went away for a week
someone with a key
took him.
He never came back home,
I missed him like Dorothy did the Scarecrow,
we always played
chased each other continuously
from the living room to the bedroom
until I’d get
my nail stuck in his chest
then we’d sit still,
at attention
until you gently pried us lose.
He was nice to curl next to in winter
to sit next to on the window seat,
we used to think about the passing cars together.
Now that I’m gone
to the hole in your backyard
I hope you can keep
someone in your life consistently.
I still might rework this a few times, but I like it now. Well, the title I’m not so sure about, but I’m whimsical. I’m like an annoying parent with my poems, tugging at them straightening their ties, seldom leaving them alone. I’m just hoping to find the right image for the blog site
