Saturday, October 27, 2012

How to Feed a Stray Cat


A murder of crows
takes off in 
almost unison-fright-flight as I
(tromping through the fallow garden)
stalk Compost,
who of course leaves (they're falling all around)
her perch,
as fresh goodies join the pile

She rules in majesty,
mostly white, with her brown-black face,
orange “stay away from me” paws
padding softly to the companion pile,
patiently waiting for the delivery

This
As close as I've come -
is it the carrot peelings, or
maybe it's egg shells -
are they dessert?
Lick the dregs, of the separated
whites,
dump the yolks
and of course the potatoes
I don't need peelings,
though she does
this is her restaurant,
and it seems today is a good day

She's still there as I walk back,
and gingerly (on those ginger paws)
she approaches her dinner.

****
Been stuck in the waste-land of no idea what to write.  Then this just tumbled out as I sat staring into the backyard.  At least seven cats compete for our compost pile, but she's the queen, and not nearly as feral as when I first saw her.  She still scares the crap out of the collared and pampered neighborhood cats, though.  If I were her, I'd enjoy that.  A lot.  ***

9 comments:

D.G. Hudson said...

A good cat story at Halloween is appropriate! Nice poetic aside.

One of my fave cats I adopted was a stray part Angora totally black cat I called Chocolate. Only her green eyes stood out in her delicate face.

Good luck with the Muse.

JoJo said...

These cats in the compost pile, they are all feral? Or neighbourhood cats?

Cheryl said...

This is so evocative. Really nicely written. I can see it all vividly.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Doesn't sound like anyone dares to mess with her.
How to feed a stray cat? Dump ANY kind of food out!

Brian Miller said...

smiles...really nice...very visual, i like that....and i can see it all play out right before me....for one not breathing too well you did good with this...i hope you feel better though...but keep writing like this....smiles....

our cats will eat anything too..

klahanie said...

And the cat's in the compost
Doing its most
To dine in style
With a feral smile.

Nice one, Tina and your life just got gooder, eh!

Have a peaceful, positive weekend :)

Gary

shelly said...

A cat restaurant. I like that idea.

Hugs and chocolate,
Shelly

Jo said...

Its nice of you provide a restaurant for the cats, but strays can become a pest if you aren't careful, where I lived in NC we were over run with stray, feral, cats and ended up having to trap them. Sad, but necessary.

loverofwords said...

Tina, do they have names (like TS Eliot's?)