A Muse is Feline (2 poems)

[butterflydreaming]

All my tears salted the earth of verse
and now my words stay buried.
I miss the thin tendrils
of my thoughts, reaching out and grasping,
And worry that there will not again bloom beauty
from the seeds that vex me.

And so I blather in unlinked metaphors
Scratching doggerel on the surface of closed doors.

These are my fears, that the worth of my curse
that my pen so long carried
Shows to me as unpaid bills;
I ledger my doubts and fill the lines, asking
Will I again coin a muse her duty
or will one ever again tax me?

~~~


I can only come like a cat
not when called, nor even when I want;
there are rules of distain
even if obey doesn't apply to me;
I can only love with remove
and in secret.
I deign to allow your touch,
contact because the day is cold
or you're in my chair.
But when you sleep, or when
you are sad, or sick,
I'll lay my warm body in your lap
purring out the music of feline affection.
You can care for me,
collar
yet never own me,
but with the press and slide
of my life against yours
I will make you mine.