print previewback TALVIKKI ANSEL
Somewhere in Space
[If you count . . . ]
If you count the catalogue of cats
famished cats, cats in the woodpile, dawn barn cats
catching the milk stream, cats in the kitchen,
ember of cat spoor in snow,
wartime cats, war babies sent to another country
(how do you say cat how do you say milk)
cats in the belfry, are you crazy says my mother
no one had vets for cats those days, crazy rooms
of women and cats, cats at the farm,
cats in the river, cats in a sack.
Because
they are feral they don’t want
our pats or cuddles, not the cats of childhood,
cats that we fed that moved in and out
of the house, lounged on windowsills, cat
that slept on my head at night so I dozed
in fear of her claws and called muffled
my parents in the far reaches of the house.