2024 NaPM 26 April

[dukealien]

About C


She was black, mostly,
long-haired with perhaps
a hint of Persian
one or two white paws
white face
and a little black mustache
like Hitler’s or
like Charlie Chaplin
which is why everyone
called her “Charlie”
despite her more formal
and more feminine name
no one could remember.

Her disposition was
more on the Adolf side
(though he smiled a lot
which she did not)–
dominating any other cats
in the household
and the dogs as well
not by tooth or claw
but unbreakable attitude.

Years and years in
when I cleaned her box
it smelled like death
and I could barely coax her
from the bedroom carpet
to her bowl: her head turned
slowly back and forth repetitively
like a car back-window ornament
or a broken Animatronic
but she still gave me
The Look.

She’s buried, I believe,
on the property near two guinea pigs
named Frodo and Gandalf
on their headstones
which predeceased her by decades.
Good thing– she would have terrorized
the two in afterlife
not by pursuit
but with that icy stare
saying she would
if she could be bothered.