poem and sketch: Anthropomorphism/The morning purring kneading rituals of two mostly affectionate cats.

My first virtual sketch–which will probably also be my last. I imagine this is more easily done on the larger screen of an ipad or with a stylus… still: David Hockney: chapeau!

This iphone sketch seems an appropriate enough illustration for this poem I wrote in a short-lived fit of tongue-and -cheek-biting indignation about the literary publishing world several years ago. “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,” I figured for about three hours, long enough to write this. Or at least: “This is what you want? This is what I will give you.” It worked. Became my first print-published poem. Real Poetry People still tell me how much they love the “mostly” in the last stanza. I still despise it, for all the reasons I wrote it in the first place. But here, do with it what you will:

 

Anthropomorphism

 

If it’s become

status quo to think

of love as some

 

thing you do

to me or one I

do to you what

 

avant-garderie

will sing us to

sleep at the end

 

of this night, sing

to us of what,

dream or wake, we’d

 

rather just take for

granted, like the

morning purring

 

kneading rituals

of a mostly

affectionate cat.

 

[published in Pearl Mag #39, 2008]