Owed to a Step Cat

Owed to a Step Cat


I’d wanted on this day to feel grateful,
  When you, the cat her ex gave to my wife, died,
Living with you was antithetical,
  Like her having lunch with him every second Tuesday, or
I didn’t know where she was at night,
  Although she didn’t

But I couldn’t,
  You being such a sociable cat,
I’d tell you something nice, you purred,
  Or not nice, I’d tell you,

“Hey, the litter box is a foot to the left…”
  Purr pup-purrr,
“See my foot? What is that?“
  ‘Meow,’
“Oh, it’s ‘meow’, and how did it get there?”
  ‘Meow,’
“So, it’s ‘meow’, and it got there by ‘meow,’”
  Purr pup-purrr,
Who can stay angry?

And it wasn’t your fault,
  You had no more choice in the matter
Of who chose you, and
  Whom he chose to give you to,
Than I did when you came along
  With her CD’s and her furniture,
And, like the old shoe lace I dangled for play,
  You tied us together

Such as nights it was she was away,
  On business trips and I knew where,
It was you who she left to care for me,
  Her warmth redolent in your fur,
When she’d return, I could not mind,
  She’d pet you first, then me, in kind

I owe you,
  No more ‘Meow,’ no more purr?
You look to be sleeping,
  I wish you were, 
Good night, step cat,
  Good bye is far too final