Not sure where to go with this yet. It's much different from the poem I
wrote last July. Finishing it up I had an echo in my head that I did not
particularly welcome--Mark Doty's "With Animals."
ELEGY FOR MILES MY CAT, d. 6/25/02
"Who can believe that there is no soul behind those luminous eyes!"
--Theophile Gautier
Death shrank itself down itty-bitty
to fit inside your liver
make you a sweet hors d'oeuvre
luscious boy-cat appetizer
who languished your final days asleep
on a cushion but woke to bray
for food your body could not absorb
Death scarfed up the choice stuff
you ate he thrived
pregnant guy-cat you were eating for tumor
Like us the body becomes ashes
you would go to a mass pet crematorium
Jewish-born I shivered but signed consent
even before we "put you down"
Almost a year gone the house is still full of you
my girlfriend's son shocked says
he's seen you darting down the hall
at that same moment in another room
out of vision the dog lifts his head
barks because he knows someone is there
feline-stubborn become a Familiar
you are turned from corpse to conjure-cat
who defies your body's landfill ashpile
life Gautier's vision of your soul
clings to us rejection of the fire
not denial refusal to be consumed
KTW/6-07-03
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Kenneth Wolman http://www.kenwolman.com http://kenwolman.blogspot.com
Lord, steel us against the expectation of disappointment and our belief in
the certainty of heartbreak....
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