thinking of you Cat, puts
a distance between our joints
makes silences strained and
casts a muslin over our cheery
cajoling and playful stares.
she lies between us, hurt and
panting, our love for one for all
teetering on her short breaths
fluttering like her chest, a rapid
up and down much faster than
my heart’s own palpitations
I cuddle her and you – a low growl, a
low moan. When the surgeon
calls, there’s better news and
veils lifted, we embrace
but in the end, I’m still thinking about cats
the river will keep this friend
in somebody’s bed the warmth began
again
I couldn’t help but overhear her
lungs cry out for air
I couldn’t help but steer
Whip off the lid, pull out the stuffing -
it’s raining polystyrene and all I can
do is hunt for cereal-box toys and
crafty dolls – ingeniously suggestive
of realer men
this hand will not be taught
to catch thought-bubble ideas
on butcher’s paper nights
all I could do was sing.
while I was all away singing
Nero burned and her dark fiddling
came crashing to an end –
not on a bridge or behind some grand
orchestral surge – but in an
ambulance she drove
stale and crisp and scared
till the water took her and
the Riverkeeper got his friend
