I MUST BURY THE CAT

And the cat is you Diane

  and though I've said I love you

I can't marry your two kids and ex-husband.

This morning I went to the store

  to wind myself out of the morning's pain with some breakfast.

I found a dead cat on the sidewalk

 and knew the thing to do was bury it.

I put it in a bag and buried it in the backyard

  praying for strength to follow the advice of good friends concerning you.

But it is impossible to bury you

  sweet Leo

  big cat love

  whose heart is beating somewhere now

  as mine is beating here.

Whose sweet breath I taste in the wind

  whose face is stamped on my mind

  in fire!

I am here

  and you are there

  Diane.

To think I once possessed you soul and body is unbearable at night

  and contorting in the morning light.

You were mine but I drove you away

  and your vengeance for today is South Hampton Beach in a black bikini

  while I am left here chilled in August

  writing a poem on a lonely Sunday afternoon in dirty E. Rutherford

  while somewhere on the beach your heart is beating

  maybe now for someone else

  while mine is beating here.

appeared in THE RUTHERFORD RED WHEELBARROW,
# 7, 2014

A DIFFERENT VIEW

Gonna get me a Z

Nissan 350

or a newer one

gonna have some fun

fun fun

whirling in the winds of the highway

some fine new exits approaching my way

damn cold old age and infirmity

ain't  gonna catch me

in my hot new Z

you'll see

you won't even see me

I'll be your beloved blurr

in the sleepy morning blink of your eye

I'll fly--

with husband /daddy work done

full-time artist life begun--!

get up early like a monk

throw some clothes into the trunk

coffee in the smiling dawn rose hour

330 horsepower--

if the doctor calls tell him I'm gone

with Parkinson's to Manasquan

Parkway south Route 34

those lonely roads

so many years before--

appeared in A Different View:THE RUTHERFORD RED WHEELBARROW, # 5, 2012

© Copyright, 2014, George Pereny.
All Rights Reserved.