by Elisabeth Ward
2005 | 54 pages, soft bound
Poems about indoor and outdoor pets.
All sales of this book go directly to the North Country Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Westport, NY.
To Order: Please send $12.00 per copy to:Shaggy Dog Press | PO Box 318 | Westport, NY 12993
The Cat as a Sonnet
A stretch unfolds the rhythm of her day.
She's nineteen now, and deaf as well as lame.
She rarely ventures far beyond our doorway,
And yet she thinks her life remains the same.
Her form's unchanged, for from far away
She looks so like the kit she used to be.
She's fed, then goes to hunt in her same way,
But ponders longer on her choice of prey.
With dreams of rabbits, chipmunks or a vole,
She sniffs the breeze to choose a hide to cast.
From sun to shade, and back again, she'll stroll
Until another day folds on the last.
Her life remains the same in all its actions.
It's but reduced itself to smaller fractions.
"The Cat as a Sonnet"
first appeared in Rattle: Poetry for the 21st Century,
Sherman Oaks, CA, Winter 2002.