He came to us in that odd way A feline knows-- A porch seat empty, An opened can of tuna on the step His mind, a cat’s mind, simply seeking warmth and food. This feral creature did not know the generosity of a back rub, the safety of a lap. He became Shakespeare who lounged atop my many books, looked down upon me with wild feline affection, bit my toes in bed to play and wrote a kinder story for my life. With his clear instinctive sight, he sees me better than I am trusts me with his whole self, not like a few words silent on the shelf, but with a soothing purr. Shakespeare warms my cold heart.
Lynette Esposito has been published in Poetry Quarterly, Inwood Indiana, Walt Whitman Project, That Literary Review, North of Oxford, and others. She was married to Attilio Esposito.