LITMIR.BIZ

       the mockingbird

      the mockingbird had been following the cat

       all summer

       mocking mocking mocking

       teasing and cocksure;

       the cat crawled under rockers on porches

       tail flashing

       and said something angry to the mockingbird

       which I didn’t understand.

      yesterday the cat walked calmly up the driveway

       with the mockingbird alive in its mouth,

       wings fanned, beautiful wings fanned and flopping,

       feathers parted like a woman’s legs,

       and the bird was no longer mocking,

       it was asking, it was praying

       but the cat

       striding down through centuries

       would not listen.

      I saw it crawl under a yellow car

       with the bird

       to bargain it to another place.

      summer was over.