A friend of mine
Received bad health news,
Heart and lungs
Weren’t as young as they
Used to be.

The husband of this
Trio has three Great Danes,
Plus puppies,
The daughter, a cat,
Who was a kitten of ours.

We have seven
Inside cats, and two kittens
Who migrated
From the neighbor’s yard,
Two outside cats.

My daughter called
This last Friday night, from ‘uptown’,
She’d gone to the movies
With friends of hers,
And, had found another abandoned kitten

In need of a home.
It was living under the dumpster
At the Dairy Queen.
She called, and you should have heard me
Going NO, No, No, no, no…

No turned into yes,
Even though I knew my husband
Would object.
My older daughter walked uptown,
In the dark of the night.

I couldn’t drive her,
That would have been complicity.
Before children, we only ever had
One cat at a time.
Time changes, though.

So, this half-Siamese kitten
Will be given a chance,
A home, if allowed.
It’s Linda’s birthday, today,
And, she’s getting a kitten.

And a decorative ‘Guardian Angel’,
And a faux Tiffany lamp,
And a book to read. The kitten
Will be her comfort,
Curled up in her lap. In our laps...

Erin Elizabeth Kelly-Moen
© Copyright 1/8/05