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"There is nothing to be found in this whole living world so deformed that Soul does not attend it,
that a gift of the Soul is not in it."
—Marsilio Ficino
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Cat Sistrum
The world, we learn, is not all that it seems,
and weary of the way are we,
who journey to Bubastis in our dreams.
For there, above the gates where conscience leads you,
in ancient characters, for all to see:
the sesheshet: "Don't bite the hand that feeds you."
That's all of wisdom, or so it seems to me.
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Catspit
The title of this poem
refers to the mysterious element
in the saliva of cats
that's supposed to induce hysteria in histamines;
but of course science, like sex
when reduced to absurdity
by a materialist world view,
is,
as Beckett's Molloy memorably puts it,
"a mug's game."
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Cat Noir
It had rained cats and dogs all day and custom was off.
The joint was deader than a church on Black Friday. A few regulars only. The diehards. Lost souls impermeable to rain.
I had taken a cat nap in my office, though there's no room to swing a cat back there, and had just come out to spell Lee behind the bar,
who went back to the office to phone his book, when she walked in.
Well, dog my cats! I almost muttered. But I'm not given to muttering. And I don't know the phrase.
She floated across the place in a Hollywood dolly zoom looking like a 40s glamour photo by George Hurrell.
Look what the cat dragged in, I said frostily.
Hello, Max. Long time no see, she said in her smoky voice, and the room temperature rose two degrees.
You've changed, she said. She looked around. This place hasn't changed though. She slid onto a stool.
In the end we had fought like cats and dogs and so I wasn't about to play cat and mouse with her now. Same poison for you? I said.
She carried a smart hand purse, and from it she brought a gold cigarette case, a gift from me once upon a time, inscribed and all,
and from this gold cigarette case produced a long slender cigarette.
I lit it for her with a clang and flick of a gold cigarette lighter she had given me once upon a time, also inscribed.
Cat got your tongue, Max?
There was a lot I could have said, I suppose.
I suppose there was a lot I wanted to say.
But it had all been said before.
Under the circumstances I decided to wait and see which way the cat jumped.
So I took Harvard with the points—, Lee started to say when he came back behind the bar. Hey, Della, he said in sluggish surprise.
Hey, Lee, she said. What's the matter, Lee? You look like the cat that swallowed the canary right now.
You know, Della, Lee said, I think it was a canary.
Lee, I said, there's a case of Angostura in the basement. Why don't you bring up a couple bottles.
I already did, Lee said.
Well, bring up a couple more, I said.
Right, Lee said, already on his way downstairs. Looks like it's going to be a big night for bitters.
What was there to say really? I asked myself.
She had the morals of an alley cat?
While the cat's away the mice will play?
This was an old story after all. Della was a cliché . Even Lee was a cliché. Cold comfort in that.
Being part of an old story made everyone in it a cliché.
That was hardest to take.
Jonesy! she said, warming the air again with her voice.
A tuxedo cat, long and sleek, in slow pacing gait, strode along the top of the bar, avoiding plates of bar nuts.
Lee left the door open, I said. Let the cat out of the bag again, you might say.
Mr Jones is the same, she said, greeting the cat with a stroke from crown to tail.
Still wearing your black mask, sweetie, she said, grinning like a Cheshire cat.
The cat nudged at her hand at the beginning of each stroke.
That's called head bunting, she said. It's a sign of trust.
I clucked.
You know there's more than one way to skin a cat, Mr Jones, I muttered.
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Cat Purring
After time wasted
playing with words
cat o'nine tails
and
cat o'nine tales
for example
composing lines fingers kneading
the warm underside of a supinated tabby cat
belly to breast
breast to belly
belly to breast
back in bed after breakfast
feeling the first chill of autumn in the dawn
other fingers palping
scalp to scruff
scruff to scalp
all amid
the while
all under the silence the while
the low
continuous
vibrancy
pedal-point of the cosmos
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Catswort
if all in all of all that lives and dies
it is like something to be this or that—
a thing that walks erect, or creeps or crawls or flies,
or swims, or frisks about and curls up on a mat—
then does this heart, of all these living miracles in guise,
above all wonder what it's like to be a cat
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Cat Oneiric
Last night I was coming back from somewhere
relieved to be coming back and glad to be back
thinking I would get me some ice cream
celebrate with some ice cream
yes, some nice ice cream would hit the spot, I thought
but then thinking maybe just some sesame noodles from Szechuan Village
except I got food poisoning from there a few months ago
puked so hard it scared my cats
and hadn't taken out from Szechuan Village since
so maybe ice cream after all
Not sure what I decided in the end because the next thing I know one of my cats is hovering in the air all aglow
like some Vegas magic act of levitation
then falling in slow motion and landing awkwardly on a foreleg
and he starts limping around and me sick with worry
my first thought was to call my mom but then I remembered she was dead
my second thought was the 24-hr veterinary emergency hospital where I had once taken my other cat
when he had that strange bout of vestibular disease
awful time, that
the hospital magnet was on the fridge as I recalled
but just as I was growing frantic about who to call
facing the hard fact that I really had no one left to call in life
I saw my cat's foreleg fall off
Like a manikin arm it just fell off
No blood or gore
just detached
In shock I was wondering whether it could be reattached if I acted promptly
and dashed into the kitchen but I couldn't make out the magnets on the fridge
they were all a blur
and I grabbed my flip phone and started looking for the number of Doctor X
my veterinarian
but I couldn't spell the name and couldn't find it among my Contacts
all the while glimpses of my poor three-legged cat hobbling around the living room were breaking my heart
and while I just stood there helpless and precious time passing
unable to find the number of the vet or make out the magnets on the fridge
all of a sudden my other cat, the one who had had the strange bout of vestibular disease, started tearing about the place in a state of panic
leaving swathes of blood everywhere
very red blood
I rushed after him into the bathroom and there found my three-legged cat vomiting blood in the litter box
and on the bathroom sink a small box of lye I had left out that they had got into
and my first thought was what am I doing with lye in the house
and I prayed that this was all a dream
I prayed hard that what was happening was all a bad dream
and tried to wake myself up as sometimes works
but no
this was real
this was really happening
and momentarily despair laid a cold comforting hand on my anxious heart
and despairing I prayed again
then
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Cat Infinite
The cat walks on tiptoe
between naps
(or didn't you know)
waiting for the wave function to collapse
in time and space
and in the event of mice
just in case
God does play dice
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Cat Minus One
On my way over today
I saw a man crouched down low at a curb
by two small dumpsters
cleaning the ass of a small dog
wiping it with a tissue
a Yorkie of some kind
I passed and stopped a small distance away
at a vantage on the scene
and when the man stood up
I knew him
I couldn't remember his name
a former student of mine
and something vaguely off-putting in the recognition
and yet it was not without a pang I noted
the bald spot and the paunch
as I watched him drop the tissue in one of the dumpsters
Then two young women stopped by to fuss over the dog
When I got home later
I told my cats the story
it made them smile
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Cat Zero
Sure but I get goosebumps
Whenever I tink about it
Whenever I tink
That the Wildcat
Ten tousand years ago
In the Middle East
Made the first move
Toward Man
By Christ
What a moment
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Cat One
Me ask me cat
why he so fat
and what he alway starin at
Me cat meow
Me like me chow
Me starin at the cosmic dao
Me tell me cat
Go chase a rat
and don't be givin me high hat
Me cat he grr
Me cat he purr
then lift a paw and lick the fur
Then yawn me cat
Me am all that
and stretchin up just there he sat
To me surprise
Me recognize
Bast starin out from me cat's eyes
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