The Year of the Cat Update

I'm a sad kitty today. My little girl went off to her first week of summer camp. My lady sent her an e-mail today with pictures of me and my sister, Cassie, so that made me feel a little better. I've also been keeping myself busy by napping, eating, stretching, grooming, sunning and--of course--checking the e-mail.

We received a very important message today from poet Laura Stamps about her new book, The Year of the Cat. Although Amazon won't have the book until late August or September, it will be available from Kittyfeather Press around July 20. Ms. Stamps said that everyone who preorders the book from her through Kittyfeather Press will receive a signed copy as well as a free gift that will delight cat and poetry lovers. What a deal! I'll make sure my lady sends for her copy right away.

In the meantime, here is a new poem my lady wrote that was inspired by that nasty...I mean intriguing...cat who's been hanging out in our weed patch:

The Weed Cat

grows in a tomato patch. The humidity is high,
so blue and black stripes peel away

from her stalk like paper from a skeleton wall.
She bats at Japanese beetles that swarm gold flames around

her pyramid head, but they continue to chew singed whiskers
and sit on her nose, causing her to sneeze out

tufts of pollen that might someday create weed kittens
whose scruffs she will never grasp in her teeth, whose stems

she will never lick. Weed cat’s eyes are lemon suns
that eat the horizon. When she cries, children hold paper cups

beneath her and sell them for a quarter each to thirsty
adults who have forgotten the taste of summer lemonade—

and weed cats that grow tall and beautiful in unkempt tomato patches—
so they don’t even know the difference.

Copyright 2005 by Karen D. Mitchell