there’s a girl
by the fountain
eating marshmallow pies
and yet…
Two fish swimming in a plastic fishbowl
going ’round … going ’round … amuse the
calico cat watching in an out-of-mind groove,
ears back, dark eyes fixated on orange and gold —
perhaps some distant feline memory moving
below plastic rainbows, through red and purple
feather silk, in and out of faux sculptured lava rock,
swimming to the bottom and back to the top.
ice and snow
her soft green field
yields the midnight sun
Hunched, ready for attack, the calico cat chirps
a sigh and rolls over offering quick cut-time bats,
his paw tapping against the plastic fishbowl, soft
at first, increasing in rhythm as curiosity with
orange and gold movement, stopping, starting,
wiggling and diving in no particular pattern or
voices down the corridor
her pretty boys laugh
from far away
with intent. Across the room, on the windowsill, a
smartphone rings, catching the calico cat’s attention.
The two fish resume swimming, going round… going
round… counterclockwise in the same old story. And
I’m consumed with their movement: gold and orange,
stopping, starting and wiggling —
groovy… n’est-ce pas?
© chuck a stetson 2013
