ONCE, WE WERE CATS!

ONCE, WE WERE CATS!


How could I eat under the gaze
of an orange sphere, the black hands
telling me when I could become a cat!


I squirmed in the circle of humanity
and watched the pale thin lips
that would soon speak to set me free.


Outside, the wind was calling to me,
and the dogwood scratched my name
on the side of the house for all to hear.


It’s time!
Down the long hall to the mirrored
room we marched, as if cats already.
One by one, our arms stretched out
into black cat arms, as we flexed
our claws, hunched our backs,
unfurled our tails, and put on our
feline faces – and MEOWWWed.


The mama cat was the last to show,
with laughing eyes, and a proud grin.
She loved her family of cats.
She had chosen well for this night.


With faces all same,
we stair stepped down into the town.
The people all turned out
to see the family of black cats
and called out their approval,
as we walked proud and mysterious -
just as our mama cat had taught us to do.


I loved being a cat!
I smelled rats in the air
mixed with the pungent smell of smoke.
I lurched forward at the bark of a dog,
who was fortunate to have a family
of cats come to call at his front doorstep.


I hissed and spewed and swung my
claws at all the monsters who traveled
to and fro on the ribbon of white -
under a huge milky moon.


…and now…


The faces that were all the same
are gone – given away long ago,

ruined in floods, burned in fires,

forgotten in some trunk,

– turned to dust.
Who knows? Only the

memory of the masks remains.


But - we were a family
of cats one October night –
a proud and mysterious lot.
We laughed and meowed

under a huge Halloween moon,
in the cool evening air,
sweet with the smell of leaves.
Yes, once…we were cats!