Email Poem

Your IP Address: 3.144.216.188
Your Email Address:
To Email Address:
Subject
Personal Note:
Poem Title:
Poem
"Suddenly you remember an old Chinese tale in which cats once ran 
     the world until they decided it was too much bother.  That's when you 
     stepped in, another story.  Say you get up now and go back to work"
                                                                       Dian Duchin Reed  
I once had a Lilac Point Siamese of royal lineage 
who entered our commoner family as a small 
ball of silky fur, home-schooled in the basement 
until he discovered the joys of the climb.  
In time, he grew beautiful, sleek, and mischievous, 
loved the warmth of sunshine and stovetop, 
delighted in rearranging the coffee table flowers
in front of my egg yolk yellow plastic couch,
(it WAS the seventies, after all).  One shout,
and he was out, knowing the rules

of the house, knowing too, noblesse oblige,
that pardon followed hard on the paws of beauty,
intelligence, and a feline sense of humor.
At bath time, cats and water at polar ends
of the tub, I was a Botticelli nude, awash in suds,
cat at breast, his blue eyes black with dread,
and though love prevailed between the species,
when toweled dry, cat fled, taking his righteous,
royal rage to simmer beneath the bed.

We named him "Charlie Chan" for the serial 
father of forties' movie fame, Charlie when in grace,
C Chan, shouted out when in the cathouse 
with his mom, Super Cat by any name.  Daily
reveille was his, crouching bedside each dawn,
minutes to spare by cat time until the alarm clock
triggered a leap into our bed, and a practiced
tread over recalcitrant bodies.

If, as it is said, animals have no sense 
of future tense, then Chan, a blessed Buddha 
of the interminable now, could not foresee "NO pets" 
unwelcomed in our path.  Into the arms 
of another woman who pledged to love him, I 
placed one confused and frightened cat.  Now 
years past, absence making missing stronger, 
I cannot part with the broken heart
I ask this poem to mend.
CAPTCHA Preview
Type the characters you see in the picture
Required