Lullabies for a Cat

 

Shadows as Long as Day

—Poetry and Photos by Robin Gale Odam, 

Sacramento, CA

 

 

NIBJET AND JAT
After Lauro Monti, Monkey and Cat, 2016

Atop the bureau sat Nibjet the Monkey,
but Jat the Cat, jet-black and slick,
sidled after the shadows of shadows at naptime—

the sunlight cast shadows of red through the windows,
when shadows would chase after noon in the hour
of naptime when shadows would play in the playroom.

And mother would nap for a spell.

 

 

 

 Lullabies

 

TRILL

A bird pierced night with
every call she could remember.

Small Death lay in the grass—
yellow beak, sweep of feathers,
stillness.

The cat sat at the edge of the
walk, listening to lullabies.

      
(prev. pub. in Brevities, 2012)

 

 

 

 Waiting for You

ZUGZWANG
After Frank Moss Bennett, Interior Scene with
a Cat Seated Beside a Window, 1923

The old woman placed a saucer
for the cat and put on her street shoes—
leaving two open windows, for air and for
light, she plumped the pillow in front of the

game board and left the seven pawns
to atone. She opened the door to look for
her mother, to ask about the note she found
when she was ten—that she would return

soon, to finish the game—she took one
diagonal step through the doorway.

 

 

 

 Dark and Sweet River

SESTINA FOR THE DARK AND SWEET RIVER
After Sestina by Seamus Heaney: “Two Lorries”

for the sestina
dip the flask and fill it full
later we will drink

          * * *

At the quick of morning a night bird calls through the black
sky with strains of ownership. He soars above the water
from the face of the mountain, where the falls
gather and trickle over the stone.
Far below, the man will dip his father's vial
and fill it full, and rest for the journey home to the well.

The bride rises before dawn, follows the path to the well,
feels along the coarse rope for the old pail with the black
handle—there is enough water in the pail to fill her mother's vial.
Later she will drink—for now she will save the cool water.
She leans against the smooth stone
of the well and remembers where the sweet water falls

through the night—where it gathers at the mountain and falls
to the dark river that fills the well.
The night bird soars over the cool stone
above the river beneath the black
sky. The man kneels at the river and sips the water
owned by the night bird—he clutches the vial.

He will rise and turn for home, the vial
at his breast filled from the river below the falls.
The night bird calls ownership over the water,
over the river that fills the well:
My dark and sweet river beneath the black
sky gathers in the mountain and trickles at the stone

mountain—it trickles over cool stone.
The bride waits at the well, clutches her vial
and kneels beneath the black
sky—she listens for the fading night and falls
into the far memory of an early morning, at the well
waiting for . . .  the syrupy sweet water

that is beginning to make her mad—cranky water
and something about slipping a stone
or something else into the river and, well.
forget the damn vial—
she drinks the whole damn thing and falls
into . . . the bird who owns the river is black

and no . . .  and no amount of water that fits in a little vial
will do, even if it comes to the well    from the really special falls
owned by a stingy night bird    from a stone mountain    in a sky of black.

_____________________

Today’s LittleNip:

EYES AT THE RIM OF DAY

—Robin Gale Odam

a pacing near the perimeter, a
tremble of time                             

they are waking now and words
begin to fade

       
(prev. pub. in Brevities, 2016)

______________________

SnakePal Joyce Odam continues to make progress and is now staying with her daughter, Robin. Meanwhile, we have the pleasure of more of Robin Gale Odam’s skillful poetry, including her smooth, dark Sestina, and we are very, very grateful for that!

Robin has sent some poems with cats in them, celebrating our Seed of the Week, Cats. If we’re going to work with cats, we’d better satisfy the dog lovers out there, so our new Seed of the Week, Man’s Best Friend, allows for dogs but could be expanded. Send your poems, photos & artwork about this (or any other) subject to kathykieth@hotmail.com. No deadline on SOWs, though, and for a peek at our past ones, click on “Calliope’s Closet”, the link at the top of this column, for plenty of others to choose from. And see every Form Fiddlers’ Friday for poetry form challenges, including those of the Ekphrastic type.

For Seamus Heaney’s Sestina, “Two Lorries”, see poetryarchive.org/poem/two-lorries/.

 

For more about Frank Moss Bennett, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Moss_Bennett/.

______________________

—Medusa

 

 

 

 Interior Scene with a Cat Seated
Beside a Window
—Frank Moss Bennett, 1923

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 For upcoming poetry happenings in
Northern California and otherwheres,
click on
UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS
in the links at the top of this page.

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