Issue 2:
Pet
Linda Malnack
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Cats in the Butter
Night after night they wait for my breathing
to deepen. Hunched in the tall ancestral
grasses of their imaginings, noses moist
with intent, they leap. On the countertop
eyes sliver, tails droop, pleasuring in the kill.
They take down the sharp edges of their quarry
with only stars looking on through windows,
wind rustling in the trees like dreaming birds.
Mornings, I find the edges of butter softened,
gently patterned by rough, pillaging tongues.
Three glossy cats with innocent eyes brush
their backs and tails, clean between toes with
glistening pink bristles. They know they’ve
rubbed me the wrong way and lull me with leg
grazings, purrings, lips turned up in contentment.
Night after night I forget to cover the butter.
~Linda Malnack
This poem was first published in Cats, Canines, and Other
Critters by Anderie Poetry Press.
Linda's poems have appeared in many publications. Her chapbook Bone Beads, was published by Paper Boat Press in 1997. Email.
© 1995 by Linda Malnack. All Rights Reserved.
© 2000-2002 by Cayuse Press. All Rights Reserved.
This page updated April 23, 2002.