(no subject)

[philena]

suddenleap's call for poetry made me search my old poems for suggestions. And I ran across this:


Cat in an Empty Apartment

Dying—you wouldn’t do that to a cat.
For what is a cat to do
In an empty apartment?
Climb up the walls?
Nothing here seems changed,
And yet something has changed.
Nothing has been moved,
And yet there’s more room.
And in the evenings the lamp is not on.

Footsteps on the stairs,
But they’re not the same.
Neither is the hand
That puts a fish in the saucer.

Something here isn’t starting
At its usual time.
Something here isn’t happening
As it should.
Somebody has been here and had been,
And then had suddenly disappeared
And now is stubbornly absent.

All the closets have been peeked in
And all the shelves explored.
Slipping under the carpet and checking came to nothing.
A rule was even broken and all the papers scattered.
What else is there to do?
Sleep and wait.

Just let him come back,
Let him show up.
Then he’ll find out
You don’t do that to a cat.
Going toward him
Faking reluctance,
Slowly,
On very offended paws.
And no jumping, no purring at first.

 --Wislawa Szymborska