Kline graue Katze
(Little Grey Cat)
“Hast du angst?” (Are you afraid?)
I asked the motherly
grey cat,
(if cats can be motherly)
perched precariously atop
the stall post in front of me
while I mucked out
the horse’s stall
after school
of a dark,
Alberta-cold,
February eve.
Grey Kitty,
(because I was that original)
“mawed” her answers
back in
cat,
rather that German,
but
I could swear
I heard her say,
“nein.”(no)
I had to perfect
my German because
I was going there
on exchange in the spring
and
I was terrified
to be misunderstood
and
anxious that
I would be
ganz allein (all alone)
and have nothing to say.
That motherly
grey cat,
perched precariously
cold day in
and
dark day out,
and listened patiently to
my inane, adolescent chatter
about
meine tag in die Schule. (my day at school)
But
all of that practice
with my
long suffering cat
in the end
did little to
prepare me for
the solitude
and separation
cast in the shadow of
a language barrier.
(c) R. L. Elke 2016
This makes me feel like I’m there, and the German phrases add such a neat flavor.
thank you. funny thing is that first phrase was the first thing i though of when i read “angst” – talking to my cat in german when i was 16. so cool and strange where our minds go. lol
Wow! This makes me think of the German exchange student I had in my classroom. I’ll be more mindful of them, of their loneliness and their homesickness, because of your poem.
thank you. when i came back from germany i wanted to be a translator. i didn’t want ppl to feel like i did when i was in germany. i studied french and german in uni but after my first semester my marks in my theatre classes were higher so i did that instead. funny where life takes us.