Muse #2:\u00a0 The Cats<\/p>\n
by Frannie Z<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Their names: Angelface and Pierre.<\/p>\n
I am not sure if I loved them<\/p>\n
because I treasured their humans<\/p>\n
or if I treasured the humans<\/p>\n
because they belonged to the cats.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Angelface would front my legs boldly<\/p>\n
then bounce into my lap<\/p>\n
where he liked to stay.<\/p>\n
Pierre would explore, then rub,<\/p>\n
suggesting but not asking<\/p>\n
for pats.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Petting, pats:<\/p>\n
Pierre\u2019s human made the verb<\/p>\n
into a related noun.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWussy\u201d is what his human<\/p>\n
styled Angelface.<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t cowardly,<\/p>\n
but didn\u2019t trouble<\/p>\n
neighboring cats,<\/p>\n
preferring, instead, to claim<\/p>\n
food and comfort<\/p>\n
without competing.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It is the way they both moved-<\/p>\n
not like tigers,<\/p>\n
more like small trees,<\/p>\n
playing out the small shivers<\/p>\n
that moved their heads<\/p>\n
like friends of light winds-<\/p>\n
that fastened me<\/p>\n
to their cat lives<\/p>\n
and undid me<\/p>\n
in their presence.<\/p>\n
I could do no more<\/p>\n
than watch, bring food<\/p>\n
provide pats<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
and offer up human<\/p>\n
nonsense words<\/p>\n
which in some chemistry<\/p>\n
of irony<\/p>\n
translated<\/p>\n
into what we all navigated<\/p>\n
in our disparate brain and sound systems<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
into love.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And, like Spock<\/p>\n
in the episode<\/p>\n
which found him climbing a tree<\/p>\n
and touching the face<\/p>\n
of a human who loved him,<\/p>\n
I made the steps toward<\/p>\n
translating, just for a moment,<\/p>\n
the rush of pleasure<\/p>\n
their presences gave,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
to happy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Muse #2:\u00a0 The Cats by Frannie Z Their names: Angelface and Pierre. I am not sure if I loved them because I treasured their humans or if I treasured the humans because they belonged to the cats. Angelface would front my legs boldly…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":718,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/718"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18710"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18732,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18710\/revisions\/18732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}