Old cat
Skin cracked
Saying “MmrROwWw” to me like
An angry curse
Ramming his head
Into the iris stalks
Spraying dead white
Across his mottled blackness
Saying “MMrROowww” to me like
An angry curse
Until I reach out
And scratch the cracked
Black body
Feeling his old
Shriveled bones
Coaxing his back
Into an arch

It must hurt
I think
To be touched
So old,
But more pain
Is the itch
Driving his ancient frame
Into the stalks.

I leave and hear
Another “mmRRoww”
Like an angry,
Lonely curse

I knew you would love each other
More than we loved each other
When I said yes,
But I still said yes
Because I loved you
More than I have ever loved another

“My dream date is after we’ve already been dating for a few months and decide to go out on the town. We meet a cute guy, buy him drinks, and spend the next few hours laughing together and maybe slaying it at a karaoke bar. Afterwards we invite him back to my place and get into some role play. I become Israel, he Palestine, and you The Goddess that helps them finally come together, even though Israel has to bend over a little bit to make it happen.

Confession: this is a dream date. I have to become really committed to physical therapy again in order to get my singing voice back for karaoke and I live with old country people so it’d have to be at your place.”

When the baby has a fever
So bad
His shadow is sweating