Katisha

When Calypso split into body and soul,
I decreed
no new cat can take her place;
we’ll wait until Circe does the same
and that is that.
And I stamped my foot
and the universe shook.

The fall had held off
freezing the ground
until mid-January
so I could dig the hole
and put the cold clay down
in a little shroud of
unbleached cotton
that held its own memories.
So it was all part of the
universal plan.
I stamped my foot
on the cooling earth
and that was that.

But people conspire
Right?

There are forces in this universe
that cannot be denied:

the earth rotates
the stars twinkle
and so does my wife’s eye.

Today she broke the news:

Willow has had two babies:
two tiny Abyssinians
ruddy, her sister the breeder said
— and cute, I noticed.

She’s coming in six weeks.

For my birthday.

The foot stamping that followed
was actually a dance.

Mine.

Welcome Katisha.

[Photo of Katisha and her mother and sister is on platinum river
— Katisha is pronounced cat’-e-shaw, after the interesting character in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado]