ode to my cat

Dear a dark night sky,

Flecked with gold light,

your lanky body squeezes into the smallest of holes

and climbs as far as it can

towards the top of a tree-

settling onto the lowest branch,

your fill the rest of the world

with your pride.

you fight the sun and lose

to its radiance

yet the sun cannot settle lightly down

upon our chests, as you do-

at night it snores in its sleep, by our feet

or in another room, before plucking

a rubber band from the ground,

and waking the earth

Dark night sky flecked with orange stars,

picky and slim and lightweight

yet prideful and loud and long-lived-

while I play with the sun and the moon

and dote on the greasy evening fog

I will always be closest

to you.