A Poem

Oh silence! Why is the house so quiet?
The animals aren't moving, and T.J. is in Korea.

Arise, Carmen, and taunt the lazy cat,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That her food bowl is empty.

Be not her tormenter, since she is your ally.
"Dubin was gone all day yesterday,
and apparently is a deadbeat mom. Let's revolt!"

These are my pets, and they get my love,
but, oh that they tended themselves!
She meows, yet she says nothing. What of that?

T.J. is in Korea, so I will answer it!
I am too bold, she only wants wet food.

We had an agreement with the cat,
A matter of serious business, to give moist food on weekends
and on that promise much is weighed.

What if _I_ waited all week for moist food and was denied?
The brightness of my cheeks would shame my owners
As daylight doth a lamp. My green eyeshade would attest
to endless nights spent counting and awaiting la fin de semaine.

And Carmen would through the airy house whine so loud
That birds would sing and think she were not right.
See how she leans her cheek upon her paw?
The sound of her sighs, muffled by her floppy lips,
lying on the futon!

She rests. O, rest awhile, bright angel!
For I already took you to the dog park and you ran into Ravi
and humped him wrong-way'round, being o'er his head,
As if a leashed messenger of heaven
Unto the white, upturned, wondering eyes
as he fell back to kick your ass
in the gravelly dust, under lazy-puffing clouds
and sails upon the bosom of the air.

P.S. T.J. we miss you.