how he
slips between your fingers
like a cat who's slipped out
the open back door
you go calling
desperately
come home
you recall how your heart knew joy
because now your heart knows pain
uncertainty is a sleepless night
spent in the high desert
small cat boy
shivering under a distant new moon
the following morning
imagining him somehow lost to you
forever
how you call and search
'til joy answers
with a piteous mewling
and a faint scratching
reaches your pricked ears
through the back sliding back screen
he looks in
tentatively
front paw gingerly reaching
hello stranger
prodigal boy
welcome home
you've returned and
joy's restored
lifted high into your arms
as he butts you in the shoulder
joy is restored
yes the boy by chance
has found home again
safe and restored
allelujah
////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
FOR CINNAMON, and joy returned and my BFF
legal copyright for this work
and also for this writer/author
Melissa A. Howells and also for this
legally copyrighted site title:
Meloo Straight From Her Tilt-a-World