My Pet

There's an extremely symbolic cat living at my house.

She is quite satisfactorily cat-like

and has formed herself to fit our spaces,

even the dog-shaped ones,

with greater or lesser grace.

She's tangible enough, especially when she

decides that a drink of sink water is far more important

than my teeth being brushed, my face washed.

Like all objects of love, though, she can be

elusive, and illustrative

of our need to hold and mold and control,

and the certainty of failing at it.