evening poems
while william shatner
tells me all the unexplained mysteries
i should care about
but i simply
don’t
~~~
big yawns
and split-up sleep
and hopefully getting
the cat to eat
or take her meds
at least
[almost done with this trip
and i’m so excited to sleep
in my own bed
once again]
~~~
but seeing people has been absolutely lovely —
i wouldn’t exchange that
for anything
[even eight uninterrupted hours]
i tap at the window
to get the attention of the cat
i’ve just fed
and the puppy goes crazy
thinking it’s a stranger
tap tap tapping at our door
and so she barks
and poofs up
and howls
to protect her home
and her kips
and herself
and she’s so brave
sometimes
i’ll do things
with no one around
that are so dramatic
i feel
i obviously
did them for an audience
but am i
an audience of one
or do i really want to influence
the animals here
that i’m that
ridiculous
?
[either of these could be
the for real
truth]
guest cats upstairs
and our animals down
trying so hard to figure out
what’s going on
the puppy
sniffing
and snoofing
and investigating
hardcore
and the cat
just kinda
hissing
every time she passes
that door
and the orange cats
seemingly
unaware of it all
that was
the greatest part of my morning
the greatest morning
a cat on my lap
enjoying the scritches
from my left hand
and a puppy at my feet
leaning into me
enjoying the scritches from my
right hand
and though i got no writing done
and it only lasted about ten minutes
i was in a blissful heaven
the whole time
a family
a train ride
and thousands of sunflowers
in fields rolling past
at 266 km/h
and somehow it all reminds me of
van Gogh’s paintings
and how much i want to become
an impressionist
~~~
i just got so confused
as to why the baby in front of me
wasn’t crying in response to the
baby crying in the next train car over
and then i remembered that babies are not dogs
who bark and howl to be heard by others
of their species…
~~~
this whole trip
is a whirlwind
this whole life
kind of is
too
at least i have a train car
inside which to sit and write
all my silly poems
~~~
every
single
time
another train passes directly by
i
am
startled
~~~
there are
so many more palm trees
than i ever would have expected
in Europe
[i think that’s on me tho,
because climate is a known thing]
~~~
i think
if you’ve seen
any
van Gogh painting
of nature
or landscape
you’ve seen the full spirit of
what these trains speed past
our dog has become
the neediest little puppy
in this, her third year
and perhaps it is simply because
she is not doctor-ordered to
not
follow us upstairs
and jump in beds
and leap on laps
or perhaps she has gotten used to us
and what we will allow
and what we
won’t
but my goodness
the amount of barks for playtime
and dances for attention
and literal time spent in my lap
[yes, this 45-pound dog
sits in my lap
while i sit
on a dining room chair]
has most definitely increased
within this past
year
at least our animals exist
i don’t know how much of the outside world
i could survive
knowing about,
if i didn’t have giant puppy dog eyes
and happy puppy tails
and gentle cat purrs
and quaint cat meows
and wonderful little animal cuddles
to come home to every day
[or even stay home with
when the world is too much]
[how in the world do folks without pets
(and with depression)
survive?]
Computer has officially
exited her shark era;
turning a solid three-years-old,
she is no longer a puppy who will bite
everything she can get her teefies on.
so we celebrated by having a long walk
in her shark halloween costume,
playing in the park
with her best dog friend,
and getting an ice cream
and a new shark toy
once home again.
and she celebrated the way she does
every other day —
by being the happiest,
most tail-waggedy,
puppiest puppy
we’ve ever seen.
[even if the shark era has ended, i believe
the puppy era will continue on
forever]
too small, our silly costumes
for our cat and our dog
but i think that was all they had for the taco cat [dog]
but the shark, there were definitely other sizes
so i guess
let’s
run back to the pet store and pick up a large
for our comps chomps to chomp at for Halloween
