Ode To All Cats Everywhere

This is to Cats
All Cats
All Cats that
I have ever
Known encountered or saw
Sitting in shop windows
or under the couch at a
Friend’s house and
To all the cats
Too
Who I have never
Known no cat’s
Praise not to be sung not
To sing

Praise to Black cats and Not Black cats
And Orange cats too
To all the cats who have come to curl in a bed beside me
Ding Dong (1st)
And Pinky then Izzy
Izzy my
Heart broken and her’s as I abandoned
My praise a bound
Overpowered by
My self inflicted distraction
She chased crumbled
up cigarette packs always bringing
them back to me

Praise to Black cats and Not Black cats
And Orange cats too
To all the cats who have come to curl in a bed beside me
Ding Dong (1st)
And Pinky then Izzy
Izzy my
Heart broken and her’s as I abandoned
My praise a bound
Overpowered by
My self inflicted distraction
She chased crumbled
up cigarette packs always bringing
them back to me

Then Fippsy and
Little Boy
who ran away
MaoMao, and Shadow and Slinky
Slinky who I pulled from my chest as the vet took her away
So scared and too late

Then Zuzu so tiny and Black
and Abha regal
Stripes and attitude to match
and more Cats yet
To be met
And the kitten eating peanut shells by the fire
in Cameroon in her
(left unnamed)
Great Aunt’s hut those fresh
Roasted peanuts so good
the empty
shells I suppose too

And I should praise the big
fat cat my niece once
Had
He liked to sit in the sink body
Spilling over the edge
With a drip drip of
water soothing
Now she has only dogs
Big drooling dogs

And I praise
too all my sisters’
Cats
Poor Grey who just arrived then died and Terese cried on Thanksgiving day
And the ratter at her forest home
Pregnant with her third litter and then her fourth and
Sandra’s cats Taylor
and Sabien and Samson and Delilah
And the one or was
It two the coyotes got
Here’s to them and because I
smelled of my sisters their
cheeks would rub possessively
up
against my calves

Also to every cat I’ve ever followed on instagram
The big fat grey ones that stand up straight
The Maine Coons with the brush of fur that top their ears
The rescued kittens and the one with a grumpy face
The cats that look like little leopards and the
dwarf Puma some guy in Russia keeps
All wild cats too
Lions and tigers and jaguars
This is to ALL cats
No wild one’s forgotten
In zoos or not.

And a shout out to Franny and Zoey my
Dear friend Cat’s
cats
Cat who taught
Me how to be
Franny and Zoey vocal
Through phone lines all the way
From Michigan now dearly departed
Replaced by a white one
Cute
as kittens tend to be

And the cat who followed my friend
Home and stayed for 15 years
Growing round growing old and dying just
as her friends too seemed
all to be dying too
Cancer,
the cat, the friends, one after the other.
Now she has a another
aloof hidden in the
back of a bookcase
Feral, named Shade

And travels
Travels remembered by
Cats praise to them
The kitten in Merida, the orange cat on the sidewalk in Delaware
That 1/2 starved white village cat
in Musumbwene she
Belonged to the boat captain who
thought I should marry him the
Second wife
I was single I was white why not
He requested permission from my
brother-in-law I remember
Not just the
Cat but his wife too
She was pretty and
Shy
With me as the second prosperity
could flow to her
Too I had much
To bring and did I say how gorgeous the
Boat Captain was as in a
Wetsuit he slipped
Into the Coral Reef
Praise

To the kittens eating dinner
scarps in Kinshasa. And the beautiful young
one who joined us at meals
In Los Llanos where I’d gone with a
group of strangers To see alligators snakes
and river dolphins.

And Catherine’s Burmese
A very old cat
But of course she lived so long
Catherine had her ways
And the two one eyed cats who live in 308
Spyro in 310
Forever chasing feathers on a string
And praise too to
the cat sitting on Aunt
Betty’s lap as she drinks her glass
Of wine then forgets and
Pours another one.
And the kitten that
Matt
Had in the loft where they had all those raves
And she curled up
With the junkyard
Dog
Rescued from the junk yard across
The street now a
Restaurant and stores that sell expensive shoes

And soft did I forget to Praise soft
Like silk silken soft and warm
cat hairs everywhere stuck
to your face and covering
sweaters your dress and
black pants
Should I praise that hair everywhere too
And praise too
all those allergic
Or drown them in scorn
Blowing dander their way
Singing praises as they sneeze

But I don’t want to be a cat if I’m reborn
They are rarely kept safely and warmly inside
Most don’t have houses full
of toys And cases of cat
food waiting for dinner time
Mostly they live feral and hungry
and fighting ear mites and
Infections and one
Litter following another In
Clowders and clusters in vacant
lots and empty
buildings in city upon city
I sing praise to those cats too
Short lived and homeless
Hungry and cold