Jennifer Sepso
__________
Oliver
Mid-stride, he collapses— not fallen,
just hungry.
As dramatic as
a high school production
of Romeo and Juliet.
Spine long as breath, he stretches until the room pauses in respect.
Deliberately he yawns: a flare of pink, a carnivorous
cathedral of teeth. Then trots off, tail held high— a banner, not a question.
Tucks himself into a loaf: compact, poised, centered like a monk or a lit match.
He snakes
between table legs, vaults from
shadow to light, a Victorian ghost
in a fur coat.
The chase is quiet now: a flicker, a shimmer, a twitch of ribbon under the sofa.
When it’s over, he steps into a square of sun— not basking, not grateful, just there. Because the light, too, owes him something.
__________
goldfish
i never got the puppy
or kitten i asked for
when i was little
my first pet was
a goldfish,
the perfect kind of pet
according to my mother
who liked things
small, contained, quiet
it lasted two days.
one morning
the bowl was empty
a wet arc on the counter
the fish,
a shimmering carcass
on tiled floor
we hadn’t even named it yet
try, try again
the next one
followed its predecessor,
in pursuit of freedom
or a higher power
in chinese lore
goldfish promise luck
ours went looking
for better odds
leaping glass
testing air
and in the three seconds
they could remember
they looked at us
and decided
they could do better
__________
Oliver, the cat that the poem is named and written after.
__________
Jennifer Sepso is an emerging Chinese Canadian poet based in New York City. Her work is forthcoming in Peatsmoke Journal.
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Posted in Third Annual Pet Writing Contest and tagged in #boudin, #poetry, Poetry