Let’s lick our lips together, side by side -
I kiss, you kiss,
Purrrr-fect.
Like lissom sheets of rippling light,
Steel-tendoned, creeping-toed on arched hams,
Stalkers of poetry,
Dance-floor heavies, disdainful,
Gulp-centred to the very bowels of their being,
Rumin-waiting for their own wise conclusion
Where grey meets clear and nothing begins,
Pursed feet in tidy smiles and tails drawn round in a neat
Period -
Stop!
With skin-full satisfaction wiped across their faces
Cats carry their pride in bellyachefuls,
The Mr.Razors of the neighbourhood,
Sharpening their nails on epithets and hard currency,
Chatting only to their own wise God
(Who of course treats them as equals) –
… the Earth nudges a fault
And cats run in like mangy turds,
Skulk-eyed slithering, full of guilt,
Venomous at the turn of a name,
Haughty, indifferent, bad-tempered,
Noisy like banshees on perma-wail…….
… and yet tomorrow smooth-tongued they’ll sigh their way through a leap,
Flick up a jump indolently as if for small boys’ scratches (not worth a penny),
Nod onto the grass,
Bounce to a butterfly or piece of string,
Dive, somersault, chase as though their brains
Are tied to their motion …
We lead them on and laugh -
But the cat is the one who walks away.
1989 ?
This was a long time ago and children have overtaken cats in my affections … 
