THE big red cat sleeps dreaming on our cot.

Is her world the same as mine or not?

I don’t like the dog that barks all night,

nor does she

She hates fleas and mites, and I agree.

CRUMPLED pages lie beside my keyboard. The notion lingers that if I can just find the right voice, the right cross between irony and sorrow with a little joie de vivre thrown in, then the words would spew out…[too much like a volcano? Vomit?]…spill out onto the fresh white pages.

SOME SAY cats don’t like

to make eye contact.

Mine does.

We have stare-downs

whenever we’re both awake.

EVERY closet is a walk-in closet if you try hard enough.

–(The Captain’s Speech  6/7/21)

HERE I AM, God

Here I be

Flawed,

Damaged

I be

But I am me

So you see…

A bird with only one wing

Can sing

But not fly with its kind.

Is a bird with one wing

Any good?

Does God love

a race horse

With a broken leg?