TheBanyanTree: The helping of cats

[John Bailey]

Tuesday September 2, 2003

THE HELPING OF CATS

It's getting better. Work is flowing and I find myself smiling at small 
things again. Like acorns bouncing on the drive and like house-martins 
circling, wild as a whirl-wind beneath the canopy of the oak tree. And like 
the helping of the cats:

         THE HELPING OF CATS

         Today we have the helping of the cats.
         Yesterday we had the small upchuck on the carpet
         and noisy fur-ball production on the path, but today,
         today we have the helping of the cats.

         Helping to photograph roses in the garden,
         identifying the best angle by sitting on it.

         Helping to clean the table, moving dust with a furry tail
         from there to another place, where a duster won't reach.

         Helping to trim the evening casserole meat
         with such eager eyes, watching every knife-snick,
         questioning the suitability of each piece for the pot,
         each piece that would surely be better inside a cat.

         Yesterday, we had a hindrance of cats but today,
         happily, today we have the helping of the cats.

         --John Bailey
         Carmarthenshire, September 2003

And, from a small, not often read anthology, a poem warning against too 
much focus on small troubles:

         THE DOUBLE AUTUMN

         Better to close the book and say good-night
         When nothing moves you much but your own plight.
         Neither the owl's noise through the dying grove
         Where the small creatures insecurely move
         Nor what the moon does to the huddled trees,
         Nor the admission that such things as these
         Would have excited once can now excite.
         Better close down the double autumn night
         Than practise dumbly staring at your plight.

         --James Reeves (1909-1978)


(The picture to go with this may be found at 
<http://www.oldgreypoet.com/2003/200309/20030902.html> -- sorry to have 
bungled yesterday's URL)

--
John Bailey   Carmarthenshire, Wales
journal of a writing man
<http://www.oldgreypoet.com>