Madonna Lionessa (Part I)

--Before meeting with her father & sisters, Cordelia is dealt a card depicting Woodwose by Mor-Ríoghain, in the guise of a gypsy hag. i. As my sister's once-beautiful gray cat looks at me She wasted now by a thyroid condition I wonder what she sees in me today. I think it would be nice to have a cat Too bad I'm so allergic Worse case of it we ever seen They said at Walter Reed And they'd given me just half a dose On the arm during the allergy test As I had warned '˜em. I wouldn't want a house cat A cat should be out-of-doors In a barn killing mice and vermin Stalking song-birds and eliminating The timid humor of the chipmunk A tiny lion. Predator. The sweetest thing I ever saw Was a particoloured tabby Crouched on a lawn A tiny lion for sure A beautiful hunting stalking machine. She had a bell around her neck And it was funny This middle class hausfrau attempt To deprive Tabby not of her powers But of her reward. They belled you, my tiny lion So they could claim your rewards. But you are courageous, nimble, And you fear no pain. With your jackrabbit hind legs And your fierce forepaws You manipulated the Constraining leather collar, Yanked and pulled and pushed Yourself away from the executioner's yoke; Impossible but that's your genius To do what can't be done. And when it was over Claws cracked Your neck scratched and bleeding Drying blood stiffening the matted fur Your coat no longer lustrous due to the Enormity of your labour You lay in the grass on your side One eye glancing a peal-less heaven at an oblique angle Over the tops of trees dancing together in a flying grove Their purpose forgotten by the once-born. They thought they could defeat you And you vowed after surviving your small Shoah 'Never again.'