Sestina for a Stray

Image description: A person reaching for a cat sitting outside their kitchen window, their reflection superimposed on the glass surface. The kitchen is dark, and outside the morning is misty.

Frigid dawn wakens the shuddering woman.

She staggers up and straightens, twisting her

Sink faucet. As the cold water bleeds free,

She scours her face with polished, reddened claws—

Her cheeks scratched red to match, that drain to fair.

The pantry shelves are glutted with rat-feed—

The man-masked rodent that the woman feeds

Lies, still asleep. Speechlessly, the woman

Then heats the clammy kettle, morning’s fare.

Thin apron strings bite tightly into her.

The teapot squeals and heaves, rising—she claws

Her ears—frenzied—rabid to be freed—

Just an overreaction. Hands now free,

She dribbles mucid cream inside, and feeds

A teabag to the mug. Outside, small claws

Bat at the windowpane. The woman,

Pausing, takes a canned-meat offering, her

Friend framed with frosty mist, the daylight fair.

A step across the threshold, and a fair

Gale-gasp of air swells in her chest—springing free,

The woman revels in the sunrise, her

Hand outstretched towards curious snout to feed

The wild tabby. Settling in the grass, woman

Stalks cat, her advance baiting hunt-hewn claws.

Raking tangled fur, she pictures her claws

Pawing through soft soil; a rushing pulse, a fair

Sky—the thrum of a purr at the throat—not woman—

Free!

She savors thick nectar pulsing from feeds,

Each hunt a rabid bacchanal; her

Hissing teeth, her

Hanging jaw, her claws—

Her heartbeat throbs—it feeds

And warms her. The day is fair

And she is not alone in dreaming to be free—

The sated cat absconds, unfettered by the human.

Alone, she soothes herself: the parting’s fair—

It is the nature of a wild thing to be free,

And the creature cannot act a housecat.

Image description: A woman in an apron and a red-striped tabby cat circling each other. The background is purple and has stars.