Notes About The Poem

cat o' 9 tales



“cat o' 9 tales”

Like a cat has 9 lives 
every witch in every Lilith 
lives to write another day

woe bedtide the poor oaf 
who gets in Her way
like Heathcliffe he’ll be tortured 
from here to kingdom come
and back under the Hades rug again 
where all good sinners 
and their sordid secrets stray
to die another day -
roses placed just so by the fresh roadkill 
let hungry eyed vultures have their wicked way

don't you know?
the broomstick’s not just for sweeping floors clean each day ... 

Dorothy has Her way
like a cat has 9 lives 
every witch in every Lilith
learns to fly strong again, 

lives to write Her grimoire spells forever
each and every other powerful day



Candide Diderot. ‘24 



“When, however, one reads of a witch being ducked, of a woman possessed by devils, of a wise woman selling herbs, or even of a very unremarkable man who had a mother, then I think we are on the track of a lost novelist, a suppressed poet, of some mute and inglorious Jane Austen, some Emily Bronte who dashed her brains out on the moor or mopped and mowed about the highways crazed with the torture that her gift had put her to. Indeed, I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.” 
(Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own)



“What fresh hell can this be?” 
(Dorothy Parker)

"If the doorbell rang in her apartment, she would say, 'What fresh hell can this be?' - and it wasn't funny; she meant it." 




betide. :)
Copyright © | Year Posted 2024

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Poetry Avatar
April 22, 2026 at 6:18 PM
These words do no justice as I watch you watch the world where days turn to night and the west wind blows I see that smile as you perk up a coffee'd moment of pleasure even if only for a little while and I smile as well as thoughts forget tomorrow's troubles tangled and tied together
Diderot Avatar
June 2, 2026 at 10:31 PM
Life's for living TS Poetry, not for watching...there must be smiles, and humour to pull us through those windows, always. Woe betide when the smiles are stolen from us. Sunshine smiles on rainy days are keys to doors that pull us through to brighter beings that open our hearts. xx
Diderot Avatar
May 27, 2024 at 8:19 PM
My Secret Life.
Diderot Avatar
May 27, 2024 at 8:20 PM
https://youtu.be/kkO0UHBNbqc?si=OGQf5TNkFlswrJgT
Diderot Avatar
May 27, 2024 at 8:18 PM
Catnip.
Diderot Avatar
May 27, 2024 at 8:19 PM
https://www.poetrysoup.com/short_stories/catnip_1154
Diderot Avatar
May 27, 2024 at 8:17 PM
cat o' 9 tails.
Diderot Avatar
May 27, 2024 at 8:18 PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_o%27_nine_tails
Diderot Avatar
May 27, 2024 at 8:16 PM
Season of the Witch.
Diderot Avatar
May 27, 2024 at 8:17 PM
https://youtu.be/07yHb52wm4E?si=qZ8BZf7O5_4MyJBR
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