cat cliche but true nonetheless
terry trowbridge
I pull the chain
that turns on the light
in the pantry closet
every time I do
the hi-hat pianissimo *clink*
materializes instant cat
the cat’s eyes widen in mantid fascination
focused on the jiggling sparkly chain
pupils eclipsing all the way
to the outer rings of Saturn
those pupils must be letting in so much light
as though the artificial Sun at the center
of the pantry was not blazing blinding bulby
illuminating all of creation
John Milton said the Sun
was placed at the center
as a divine ornament
Milton’s God
did not anticipate
the descendants of Adam and Eve
would copy the Sun and dangle a string
and look away
because their favourite ornament
would be cats
Researcher & farmer Terry Trowbridge’s poems are in Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Carousel, Lascaux Review, Kolkata Arts, Leere Mitte, untethered, Snakeskin Poetry, Progenitor, Nashwaak Review, Orbis, Pinhole, Big Windows, Muleskinner, Brittle Star, Mathematical Intelligencer, Journal of Humanistic Mathematics, New Note, Hearth and Coffin, Synchronized Chaos, Indian Periodical, Delta Poetry Review, Literary Veganism and ~100 more. His lit crit is in BeZine, Erato, Amsterdam Review, Ariel, British Columbia Review, Hamilton Arts & Letters, Episteme, Studies in Social Justice, Rampike, and The /t3mz/ Review. His Erdös number is 5. Terry is grateful to the Ontario Arts Council for his first writing grant.
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