Maureen Donatelli’s most recent poem to appear here was Through Me, published as part of Contributor Series 9: If Men Had Ears. Today’s poem is so visual it’s impossible not to see Shi Shi, conqueror of the window sill, as she inspired our writer.
My Cat
By Maureen Donatelli
By Maureen Donatelli
Shi Shi has assumed her evening throne
long curled in sinuous sleep
in the deep window well,
glass cool and empty of light.
Her black shapes disappear
as she sleeps, vanish seamless
into moonless vacancy.
Her paws, cupped genteel,
cradle shadows, quiescent,
while the tip of her tail flicks
its occasional language
of nubby black impatience
against her white markings, shimmery
like dreams, or stars nebulous, swirling, alive.
I envy her ease, how she moves
without any movement at all, lithe
as mirage, as evening stillness,
as cool water swirling in a well.
Lovely