The Cat Poems, 1. Gone. My Shadow. Shy Skeptical Slow. Closet Cat.

Oh darling cat,

Can’t you hear me calling

Are you wandering wondering

What in the world you did

To suffer so severely?

Oh darling cat,

Can’t you hear me crying

Are you silently starving

Cold wet weary and wondering

Which direction to wander now?

Oh darling cat,

Can’t you hear me calling

Can’t you feel me crying

Why in this wet cold weary dreary world

Can’t you feel me here

Silently suffering in fear and care.

Oh darling Symphony cat,

Sun of Concert

Moon of my misery

I’ve watched waited wide-eyed

Since you vanished from the stoop

Clinging to hope

You will return –

I’ve prayed.

Oh darling cat,

I can feel you calling crying wandering wondering

Lost wet weary cold hungry frightened

I can feel you running away

From loud noises and voices and bitter-scented

Strangers.

 I can feel you hiding cowering in

Bushes shivering shaking dying

Alone.

©  Susan Lynn Gesmer, The Cat Poems, 1980