POEM SHARE: What The Cat Contemplates While Pretending to Clean Herself

What The Cat Contemplates While
      Pretending to Clean Herself

So attentive
to her paws
she seems
leaning over
licking
tirelessly
but thinking
not about what dirt
has climbed under her claws. 
No, the cat sees herself
sternly stepping to the plate
spitting in her paw palms
and gripping the bat just so. 
With the look of feline indifference
she tends to one final itch
before staring down the pitcher
in the last instant before delivery. 

When she rubs
her wet cat wrist
behind her furry ear
you'd think she had a spot
of mud there
or a flea
but really
the cat is signaling
the runner at first
to stretch that lead a little further down the baseline. 

By the time
she is perched
on her hind legs
lapping at the fur
of her underside
the cat is sliding safely
into home.

Nancy Bontilier