99poems/distant

Oriole in a distant
oak. My insistent
cat licking his
paws on the window ledge.
He needs to do it
there, since the pathway
to it is my desk,
Five times he leaps
up to the ledge,
five times I throw
him on the floor.
He is love-starved
or food starved,
or just obsessed.

Like the friend
I declined yesterday,
who calls for tomorrow
or the next day.
I say yes, because
it is the only
way.

I can feel my
jaw’s begin to clench,
my day threatens
to slip from its
perfection.

I try in vain
to hold on to it,
looking out
to the oriole in
the distance,
the azure sky.

5/6/99