Oh cat,
I've never witnessed innocence
Before, how you howl to protect
Your kittens,

How scary
Must my tallness frighten
You, all curled around
Your young.

And the breezes
cold, threatening death
To such beauty unfolding
how, life is told

I want to think,
In the eyes of a mother
teats swolled and young
depending so
Much upon

Those fierce eyes tell
Me so, wild as the winds cold
You have soul
chilled by aloneness
You are touched now.

So brave me this glance,
Mom. I chance to
Make a life somehow
As well as you have
And be true to it.

To the death