Cattails in my Coffee

by Sharon Brown

• While calmly sipping coffee of a morn,
• And contemplating on why I was born,
• I watch the cat climb softly to my lap
• To primp and preen, then settle down to nap.

• As he begins to wash his whiskery face
• He will not keep his wandering tail in place.
• And while it's waving wildly in the air
• I try to track it down-it's never there.

• It wiggles to the left as I reach right
• And rebounds again in rhythmic delight.
• I resume my reaching as it rises up,
• Then comes down to coil in my coffee cup.

• The tabby turns translucent eyes on me
• As if to tell me, "There! now do you see?
• If not for you my tail would still be dry.
• Why can't you humans be as calm as I?"

• And cleaning caffeine off his copious fur,
• He curls into a ball, begins to purr.
• A call upon his dreams he plans to keep,
• So he proceeds to promptly fall asleep.

Editor's note:

• Sharon Brown, a deceased cousin of Stuart Johnson, wrote this in 1975

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