"'Curl up your tail and go to sleep: take heart'"

What Fred Said

Sitting on my bed alone with my cat
Recovering from dentistry gone wrong
(Miscarriage of such a good intention
Gone too far nor enough or just gone bad
Requiring medical intervention)
He sleepily hears me implore "Now what?"
Of no one or none in particular
(Too far now from that last pain pill I had)

He opens one eye as he thinks awhile
Then both and meows "Forget about all that
And just enjoy what little we have got:
Remember those troubles we might have seen
Which worried you so and yet never were?
Get up and take a pain pill (we have more)"

He reminds me we are both fortunate
To stay cool in a world grown much too hot
And rather more too shallow than too deep
Awash in absurdity he stays strong:
"You will get over this then you will soar
Let those antibiotics do their part
And rest up now since it will not be long
Curl up your tail and go to sleep: take heart"

Able to be cheerfully celibate
Lucky to avoid scenes which might have been
Far from the dramas of cats which are not
He yawns and purrs "Time now to go to sleep"
And that is that because he is a cat
But if cats do I swear I saw him smile

As he curls close and winks his green jade eyes
I realize which one of us is wise

+Steven Curtis Lance



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