On Choosing A Cat

Today I received my first ever fan letter, writ by Mary R (can't read her last name) Treas. of The Cat Connection, the same cat rescue group from whom we adopted Max and Fluffly
Arguably it did cost me $50, as with a donation of that sum I also enclosed an earlier draft of 'On Choosing A Cat.'
She tells me they even read it at one of their board meetings. Yay exciting board meetings!

On Choosing A Cat  (for The Cat Connection)

You, you may think that you choose the cat,
  But the truth is quite reverse of that,
For cats bear aloof cattitude, and it’s
  The cat who chooses you

That scowling clowder, let them be,
  Sit on their floor, who’s at your knee?
When one inquires how might you be, could be
  The cat who chooses you

Sure, Tom will chase your bright shoelace,
  And Molly sits in Bast Goddess Grace,
But who’s this greets you face to face? embrace
  The cat who chooses you

Who takes your lap without a fear?
  Who makes this purr you’re pleased to hear?
You’ve found your friend, for year on year, take up
  The cat that’s chosen you

Such dear friends are for all nine lives,
  More faithful than husbands or wives,
Just wait for whom loves absent strife, 
  The cat that’s chosen you

PS - Yes, this is the picture they ran in the Waltham Tribune, in 2009, of he who was soon to be adopted and now known as Our Max.

The Black and White Johnson’s

After reading too much Langston Hughes I got a headache

The Black and White Johnson’s

I am the son of Madam Alberta K Johnson
 Who had her name spelt
Not in English or Roman
 But in American
‘Cause American was good too

I was named after a Barbie doll
  And my middle name is a Barbie doll too
In 1961 Barbie met her boyfriend
In 1961 Midge got dated too
In 1961 my birth got dated too

When did we become white?

My Immagrant Nudge Mamma
  Was told she need not apply
So she went back to Hungary 
  Relived how bad it was
And immigrated back again
‘Cause "At least the babies don’t die"
  Still she need not apply

After my Grandparents divorce
  My Dad went into the Marines
Came out and the GI Bill sent him to
  Syracuse University
Like a white paintbrush dun de-Minstrel Showed him
  And there he met my Mom

The name Johnson comes from the Ireland
  My Grandfather was a Hugh, and my Dad a Hugh too
Peoples used to call and dey’d say
  "Hello is Hugh dere?"
And we’d say "Yah I’se hee-yuh!"

After a revival Church sing
  We hosted a tenor in my brothers bunk bed.
Said the brother,
"I hopes I crawl in da right bed
"Cause I don wan a crawl inna bed wid no spook!"

Whenever I fill out forms I
  Always cross out () WHITE
  And write in the margins
Modern American melting pot need not apply son of a no club member mongrel,
  And a proud one too!