Lou Storey

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Maxwell

Lou Storey·February 6, 2025

Poetry English

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Maxwell

written by: Lou Storey

Our new rescue cat talks
I mean real words in English
The chair
the first time we thought we misheard
The chair
mostly nouns framed in article
The chair
The windowsill
The table
The bathtub
The stairs

we have asked so many questions
do other cats talk?
are you really a cat?
do you love us?

but being a cat he never answers
everything on his terms
if the dog spoke it would be all
tail wagging gratitude
but Maxwell still wants to toss his stuffed mouse
scratch raw the arm of our couch
spill gray litter across white bathroom tile
flatten his ears at imaginary predators

The door
No, we say, no door
The door
The door

and we wonder
is this how he became a stray?
his last owners grown weary of monologue
words that identify but don’t communicate
evidence a focus
having nothing to do with us

The door

will we too
one day
open the door?

About
Latest Posts

Lou Storey

OCTOBER 2024 AUTHOR OF THE MONTH at Spillwords.com

Lou Storey is a visual artist and retired psychotherapist living in Savannah, Georgia, with Steve, his husband of thirty-five years. Lou’s fiction writings have appeared in The New Yorker, New York Times Tiny Love Stories, River Teeth’s Beautiful Things, Blue Mountain Literary Review, Multiplicity Magazine, and Beyond Queer Words Anthology, and recent Short Story Competition Winner, WriteTime Magazine and a finalist in the Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival. Lou is also a featured artist in the documentary film The Creative Imperative.

Laura Bennett

Laura is a native of South Florida who has spent over a decade working in the healthcare industry. She loves the outdoors and is equally at home on the beach or in the mountains. She enjoys a variety of activities, including biking, photography, yoga and hiking. Spirituality is very important to Laura and much of her writing centers around working through grief and loss. Laura also writes on a variety of other topics, in which she tries to send a positive message, adding a touch of humor when appropriate. Laura doesn't shy away from writing on darker topics as she believes it's important to embrace the shadow self. If you had to ask her what her favorite drink was, she'd most definitely say coffee. You also may have seen her cosplaying Catwoman. Laura is a lover of all animals, and owns several cats and dogs.

Time Traveler by Ernie Stricsek

I will not waste words on the preparations made for the trip I am about to describe, that’s another story in itself and probably better suited for the eyes and ears of physicists due to its highly technical nature. I will say that my journey began with the purchase of a 200-year-old farm with a large barn in Cashtown, PA, population 450, and a mere stone’s throw from the town of Gettysburg. I had studied the writings of H.G. Wells for a good many years, so the barn served me well and I was able to design and construct a vehicle that would enable me to travel through time. Given the technological advances which have occurred since Wells’ era, my time machine was of vastly superior capabilities. I performed three successful test runs to Gettysburg....

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