{"id":22006,"date":"2016-08-13T15:56:45","date_gmt":"2016-08-13T19:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=22006"},"modified":"2016-08-13T17:54:11","modified_gmt":"2016-08-13T21:54:11","slug":"22006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2016\/08\/22006\/","title":{"rendered":"Kline graue Katze (Little Grey Cat)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kline graue Katze<\/em><\/p>\n

(Little Grey Cat)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHast du angst<\/em>?\u201d (Are you afraid?)<\/p>\n

I asked the motherly<\/p>\n

grey cat,<\/p>\n

(if cats can be motherly)<\/p>\n

perched precariously atop<\/p>\n

the stall post in front of me<\/p>\n

while I mucked out<\/p>\n

the horse\u2019s stall<\/p>\n

after school<\/p>\n

of a dark,<\/p>\n

Alberta-cold,<\/p>\n

February eve.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Grey Kitty,<\/p>\n

(because I was that original)<\/p>\n

\u201cmawed\u201d her answers<\/p>\n

back in<\/p>\n

cat,<\/p>\n

rather that German,<\/p>\n

but<\/p>\n

I could swear<\/p>\n

I heard her say,<\/p>\n

\u201cnein<\/em>.\u201d(no)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I had to perfect<\/p>\n

my German because<\/p>\n

I was going there<\/p>\n

on exchange in the spring<\/p>\n

and<\/p>\n

I was\u00a0terrified<\/p>\n

to be\u00a0misunderstood<\/p>\n

and<\/p>\n

anxious that<\/p>\n

I would be<\/p>\n

ganz allein <\/em>(all alone)<\/p>\n

and have nothing to say.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That motherly<\/p>\n

grey cat,<\/p>\n

perched precariously<\/p>\n

cold day in<\/p>\n

and<\/p>\n

dark day out,<\/p>\n

and listened patiently to<\/p>\n

my inane, adolescent chatter<\/p>\n

about<\/p>\n

meine tag in die Schule. <\/em>(my day at school)<\/p>\n

But<\/p>\n

all of that practice<\/p>\n

with my<\/p>\n

long suffering cat<\/p>\n

in the end<\/p>\n

did little to<\/p>\n

prepare me for<\/p>\n

the solitude<\/p>\n

and separation<\/p>\n

cast in the shadow of<\/p>\n

a language barrier.<\/p>\n

(c) R. L. Elke 2016<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kline graue Katze (Little Grey Cat) \u00a0 \u201cHast du angst?\u201d (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\u2019s stall after school of a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":712,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22006","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\/712"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22006"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23222,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22006\/revisions\/23222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}