Ode to a Cat

[Hawkman]

Pussycat, pussycat, lick your coat
then cough up the fur-ball that’s stuck in your throat,
and leave your deposits wherever you like,
preferably where I can’t see them, all right?
Oh why did I train you to litter and tray,
you always prefer to just go your own way;
that smell from behind the best sofa’s not nice,
it’s yours, I declare; has it been there all night?

I spend all my money on food you’ll adore
but you just ignore it and sneak out for more,
returning with pigeons and mice without heads
whose entrails you leave where I’m likely to tread.
So proudly presented with sweet muted mew,
the bird in your jaws is a gag now for you;
these presents you bring me from outside the house
are not really needed for I’m not your spouse.

The reason I keep you betrayed by my clothes -
the hair that adheres to them round all the holes
where needle-sharp claws must have pulled out the threads,
while pawing my stomach to make up your bed.
But softness and warmth are such great recompense
for cleaning and mending, and in your defence,
no vermin, except the occasional flea,
have, since you arrived, been much bother to me.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Miaow!

[Delta40]

lol. Nicely penned and the rhyming theme enhanced it all the more. You describe the air of a cat wonderfully.
Is the line:

The reason I keep you’s betrayed by my clothes, correct?

[Hawkman]

Prince: Schwartzkopf or d' Los Angeles? Mi-ee-iaow ;)

Delta: Thanks, initially intended as a contraction of you is but you're right it's not necessary and I've edited it. Glad you enjoyed the poem :)

Live and be well - H

[cafolini]

Don't get two together
they are birds of one feather.
They'll do hunger strikes,
meow-meow all the nights
and leave balls of hair
to adorn everywhere.
And yet I do like them
much more than a dog
for they don't kiss hams
or ruin your teatime
with a farting fog.

In Thebes they were Pharaohs
close to Amon Rau.
For a sacred gueezer
there ain't like a Mau.

[Hawkman]

Amun, hiss-spit Ra, Miaow
surely holier than thou
and Bast or Bastet guards the tombs,
although Anubis prowls the rooms,
and though the hawks are mummified
the sacred cats are there beside
canopic jars containing food
for dried up kitties in the mood,
“A hunger-strike? No fear,” they say,
“Immortal cats are here to stay.”
And though the chairman’s gang of four,
with Stalin’s cream-licked, smiling snore,
might once have soviets reconciled,
they’ve all been dead now for a while.
I’ll leave the last word to a cat
much cooler than a crowd like that,
for Miles Davis knew the score
he had more sense than ask for more.

[Silas Thorne]

Really like the first poem, together with its driving rhyme. Excellent! It's so rich and amusing, and you are so adept at it.

I love these lines in particular :

I spend all my money on food you’ll adore
but you just ignore it and sneak out for more,
returning with pigeons and mice without heads
whose entrails you leave where I’m likely to tread.

and I feel you flow wonderfully into the last two lines. :)

but...
I would have thought you would have kept it to eleven syllables throughout. This would have made these two lines in particular:


So proudly presented with muted mew,
the bird in your jaws is a gag for you; work better I feel in terms of the overall rhythm of the poem and of that stanza in particular.

[Hawkman]

Thanks Silas, I gave it a tweak for you, hope it meets with your approval now :D

Live and be well - H

[Silas Thorne]

:biggrin5: Hope you didn't just tweak it just for me. 'sweet muted mew'! Great!

[Haunted]

The Ode is simply delightful. But 3 cat poems in all for the price of 1? This crazy cat lady is crazy cat happy :D

[Hawkman]

One is most gratified to have pleased the Haunted one, but I can only claim authorship for two thirds of her feline felicitations. ;)

Thanks again Silas ;)

Live and be well - H

[Haunted]

One is most gratified to have pleased the Haunted one, but I can only claim authorship for two thirds of her feline felicitations. ;)


True, and cafolini did a wonderful job. There's a train of thought I detected starting with the Ode, so it's quite an inspiration. Being a serious cat person I would add my own humble composition here if I wasn't so busy. But thanks for the fun.