Poem: "I won't lie"

xxxxxI won’t lie—

the cats bothered me. There were four of them—

xxxxxthree shaggy black ones and a ginger—

but they seemed more. They nosed around the yard

xxxxxlike a party of scouts. They measured

the top of the fence in steps in both directions.

xxxxxThey mewed and were answered.

I watched and watched for the others until night

xxxxxmade it impossible to count for sure.

Day brought back the cats and their number. One

xxxxxshort of the fingers on a hand. Two short

of ten if the number of the creatures were doubled.

xxxxxEight short of twenty if they were tripled.

If they were multiplied by five, there would be twenty

xxxxxbut where were the other sixteen hiding?

I caught the ginger staring at me through the window

xxxxxthe morning before the cats disappeared.

I watched and watched but they did not come back.

xxxxxI lost four cats but they had seemed more.


for Rachael Briggs

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Reading Thumboo's "Ulysses by the Merlion"

Steven Cantor's "What Remains: the Life and Work of Sally Mann"

Goh Chok Tong's Visit to FCBC