CUL-DE-SAC

Today the creek is running high

The frogs make their wobbling cry

Spring is a light wind and sunshine

In a stony landscape I see every time.

Sometimes with green hills, sometimes golden

Where dragonflies are emboldened.

And now she’s beside me,

Filling the silence by just being there.

She’s distracted by shadows on the water

And pictures that are framed by wild oak trees

The forms and shapes that only she sees.

We hold hands, walk and talk of whatever,

The trees and the trail and maybe the weather.

Spring brings its long daylight

And sadness is banished by the canyon,

The creek and a sweet companion.

She was less than one when she had her young. 

She kept her kittens in the bedroom closet.

I thought of that on the day she died 

And I thought about her muted purrs. 

I held her body to my ear 

The only way that I could hear.

She seemed half-wild living out of doors

She zoomed up trees. 

Prowled for vermin

Yowled for a mate 

She was white as the sun 

But coyotes never got her.

‘Cause she knew how to run.

Skin cancer slowly won the race. 

We cut off her ears but it moved to her face.

She died on the floor. But I remember much more. 

Chasing shoelaces. Greeting strangers.  

Drinking from the bathroom faucet. 

Walking on the ping-pong table.

We had to hit the ball around her.   

Maya was an old-school cat.

Only a fool would not see that.