Not summer yet
not for another month
yet too hot already for
all the pets
panting in the house so
I replace their water constantly
and add ice to their bowls
and now and then check on
the new kitten for her tolerance
to this high temperature
She seems fine
so all I need is to watch her
and join her play and try to avoid
her minuscule claws and teeth
as she learns her limits
as I have learned mine
The other animals around me
have learned theirs more or less
with the big kitty sprawled near a window
and the ferrets in their cage sound asleep
As for my limits
I’m staring into a famous suicide
while thinking of slow-motion genocide
and a billionaire imploding dangerously
from the weight of his wealth and utter Whiteness
and his ego and his sleep-starved outbursts
none of which trouble the kitten
or the cat or the ferrets
at all
for them it’s all about the heat
and me being simply present at the right time
while I’ve got to sit here worrying
that I am not fighting hard enough
in the slow roll of this clumsy war
by writing and raging and staring
into famous suicide
that feels like a possibility except
the kitten wants to play and
who am I to say no
to such a hopeful thing
as her face staring up at me
while she waits for the future
Dark Matter 
May 18th, 2017 at 7:27 pm
It is hard to just like this, when there so much to say. Or not to say, such as to know that you are heard, but is it the “I” of the poem, or the narrator?
I try to keep thinking about the biopic they will make of these months in a decade or so. I try to imagine A “happily ever after”ending – Kitten claws seem hopeful.