Of cats and snail mail

It is rare these days to submit a poem in hard print and send it via snail mail. When the reply came in a paid-by-publisher envelope I was over the proverbial moon.

The hard copy poetry magazine Oxygen arrived 8 weeks later, with my two poems bookending the poetry section. Check it out, Oxygen Issue 2, October 2021. A magazine in full colour with visual art, articles and poems.

Mentored

In comes the cat

hairs afloat on the air

trailing sunlight

She perches herself on white

granite – a singular ray of sun

Her green eyes half open glint

She stretches her spine

yawns, sits, looks

As he watches the cat

thoughts leave his mind’s

holding room

He sits up

places his palms in front of him

The room blurs – his hands distant objects

How to see, hear, love, thank, be, now

Somewhere below heart and lungs

his diaphragm purrs like a cat

In a room where all drapes are drawn

a lifetime of sheaths

the cat uncurls her body

He pushes through layers

velvet, linen, organza

Lets in the light

Photo: Pussy Maw by James Kerr