Songs Unknown To Cats

Broken Blessings

He uses the bare lilac as a ladder
hopping furtively closer to the chipped
iron railing and finally to the old ceramic
bird feeder filled with salvation

He is less afraid today or maybe
just more hungry than yesterday
His flight feathers are injured and I would
guess he was preoccupied when the tabby
caught him just barely but not enough

He will heal in time if he is careful to stay beyond
her unforgiving claws and if he does not starve
Thistle seeds will help- these prickly, purple holy things
A curse on the earth but a blessing in afterthought

Sometimes the very things that undo us
prove our passage-paid-ahead to some blessed event
The world is full of gratitude waiting to be revealed like
nourishment hiding beneath stickers

Tomorrow he will sit upon my hand and we will both feel less injured
We are brothers, bird and I, and we will sing songs unknown to cats
until the lilacs speak of spring

-Kat Cavanaugh LaMantia

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Psalm 23:5