Ghost Cat
written by: Laurie L Byro
For Sally: February 4 2019 to May 6th 2021
Once the ghost cat appeared, nine times, her heart stopped breaking.
In the shadow-mice dusk she stalks the first of the lightning bugs.
She retrieves her life under the fangy moon. Bolder, no longer
afraid of the yips and howls of the night, her mama read to her
from an old book with worn pages. She said “Do not fear these noises,
the air is thick with honeysuckle, slick with mating,”
She chose to disappear into another life on purpose, the heady
smell of lilac and pine, hemlocks an umbrella against soft rain.
She’ll suffer no old age, no pain. The ease of stalk and play,
each life, another chance, a fresh day. She’d seen how tabbies go grey,
they all look alike in the dark. Her mama’s heart is surrounded
by bony trees. She, is safe, as houses. A ghost cat, she’ll live
in the hallowed mist doing the important work of the dead. Later, she’ll
save another human, whose heart she’ll ease from the knowing.
- Visiting his Aunt, Christmas 2022 - December 3, 2024
- Samhain - October 29, 2023
- Thanksgiving With Cousin Fagin - November 24, 2022
