An Essay on a certain Abyssinian Cat

My friend Liisa says I should put some of my own poetry on this blog. So here goes:

65 Manually Selected Cat Resources

The Bolshevik revolution of the cat's paw. The Trotsky look is so serious, a moustache needs cutting and in the eyes is a better future. He has a coat like a chinchilla, maybe. Someone once thought he was a fox. A star sits on him. But no man of the people no, a streetcar driver no. The train arrives and it is learned that one doesn't cut moustaches on cats---and that they are called whiskers anyway. The extended claws are scimitars, half moons, seafood plates, the cranky cry calls for some sustenance. Baleful, pitiful that cry. There is a ruddy undercoat, and the ears are out of proportion to the body and softer than the rest. The plaintive cry is annoying, as is the needy look which signifies abandonment or hunger. This one, he has never been anywhere but New York and Tucson. How's that for a revolutionary? He sometimes walks as if he has plumage instead of a tail. Some say this is arrogant. Lofty. He has no personal tales to tell. Velvet, velvet the dark fur between his toes. Toes? The foot pads are black leather buttons. The cat of the pharaoahs, serene and statuesque, singed with an unconcern for social norms. Cats have no emotions, which makes them perfect companions. The temptation is to idolatry, semiology, partriarchy and fancy. The third prize at the Crystal Palace Cat show in 1871 was taken by a cat “captured in the late Abyssian War. That cat was named Zula. Patrie Domestica India, the first known one is stuffed and in the Leiden Zoological Museum. It is recommended that such rare treasures be kept indoors, however also alive. Cinnamon stick, brown bunny, devil take the hindmost, the games afoot. All beginnings are shrouded in mystery it seems. In Roman Britain cats were used to guard granaries. It is havoc in the gene pool, it is surviving depredations and cases of wildness. Specular and frantic the cat surrounds his dominant white tummy. Madagascar, elusive, not easily amused like some, the pageant passes. Black eyed susans, Pointsettias, English Ivy, Rhododendron, Rhubarb and Tansy are the poisonous plants. Mistletoe and the Marsh Marigold as well. Mrs. Basnett, Mrs. Menzies, Mrs. Earnshaw and Denham, Lady Barnard founded the first club, devoted to these. We eagerly await them.