020621b

 

The ambush predator speaks its mind


the sharpness of my teeth
blades of phosphate
penetrate your tender flesh

011121c

 

dead wren

laid just outside my door

training exercise

121020c

 

calico pounces 

faster than the shrew 

picks at canned dessert

112620b

 

she put her paw

on the waterbed

pop

082120d

 

house finches

busy at the feeder

puss yawns in wait

 

070120

calico

crosses the deck

green tail in her mouth

063020

another gift

from the calico

it was a squeaker

061020b

another present

from the smallest of us

dead shrew

041820b

choosing a kitten
how many legs or eyes
or none at all

020920

stalking dinosaurs

my cat thinks he's a sabertooth
wrens don't remember being tyrannosaurs
only know they're lunch

010520c

wrens return
be still, old cat
in the warm sun

121919c

the cat's footprints
end abruptly in damp soil
a meow aloft

112719c

The cyborg ship plunged into the sun, an apparent suicide. Actually, it was a murder-suicide. The brains got to arguing about which should be in charge, the canid or the felid. Well, one thing led to another, as humans used to say.

112419b

the poem my cat wrote
couldn't be pronounced
rhymed as well as this one
though

102419d

the cat is back
paw on my keyboard
is a step too far

101019e

Orpheus


This bush,
7 feet tall and 8 wide,
is growing whiskers and claws,
something looks out of those yellow eyes
that blink in their profusion,
its roots surround and penetrate
someone planted there,
eight years ago.

I only hope this thing
absorbed temperament, too,
from the bones
of a very laid-back cat.

100419

The big cat seemed to smile
and one more Pleistocene visitor
realized for a moment
just one moment
how appropriate the Latin name is
for the last, biggest, sabertooth
Smilodon fatalis

092819c

Started Small

Maizie ate two and killed another

before I noticed they weren't bats:

long tail, scales, membranous wings;

she caught and killed two more,

I found the shells of six eggs

inside the wall, broken siding,

one found its way outside.

Saw it now and then,

finch to cardinal to crow size,

then, for a while, nothing;

moved on, been eaten, shot?

Kinda missed it for a while,

till I found Maizie's skeleton picked clean,

carnivore scattered in the back yard.

Neighbor was over Sunday morning,

asking about her missing lab;

haven't seen it or the old lady since,

big shadows moving, not with the wind,

I'll be OK long's the critter

can't tear open the Fiesta

or come through the plate-glass window.

091819d

black cat
pacing beside my wheelchair
jump!

090919e

cat of two tails
the scaly one hanging
from her mouth