#3

For most of my childhood
there were no cats
in my family's home.
Just the two
who lived there since
my birth
and only persisted
until a few years after;
Black-Cat, who loved
no one
but my father,
and Grey-Cat
who I nursed into death
with a bonnet on her head,
placed in a shoebox
lined with doll-sized
blankets.
After that,
there were no more
cats,
only dogs,
who I loved,
but who barraged
through the house
and turned it sloppy;
or perhaps it had
always been sloppy.
From what I remember,
after the cats,
everything was
out in the open.