Hello Kitty by Ken McKeon

Yesterday evening a relative shows up after dinner

And tells her story, a deep story, a sad story,

Her cat, her dear long-time companion, is now gone,

Downed by cancer, this cat an old cat, its cancer operable,

But what would be the use,  it would keep life going

Only for a week or two,  just time to say goodbye,

Then a hard death, such an affliction, and what

Would be gained from such an infliction: more pain,

More grief, less money, so I chose to put the quite sick,

Beat up, soon-to-die-anyway old cat down. Done.

Then grieving relative walks away, with a sadness weighing

Down her heavy steps, but soon she comes right back,

A bounce in her gait, a proud smile on her well

Satisfied lips, eyes bright with signs of new ownership,

For she has in her arms a new cat, and what a cat

That cat is, in its lounging stretch, four or five feet long,

Its fur elegantly well coifed variegated silvery sheen

Ruffled over slightly softer silver background fur,

And the belly creamy off-white pampered stretch of ease,

And eyes holding a dream hauteur that commands us without

Even noticing us, so we bow, and scrape the floor, and

Just barely restrain ourselves from cheering, or weeping,

Or whatever it is one does when a royal shows up,

And the bearer of the cat says simply: She’s only a

Kitty, just imagine what’s to come, I love her so,

And I’ll be so good to her, she will have to be good to me.

And the cat yawns, and I start coughing up a fit, my throat

Tickled raw by the finest of just shed cat fur, and I,

Stunned and staggered, indicate the cat will have to leave,

Have to be scooted quickly out of our home.

I can’t take it, I am allergic to this cat at least, away with it.

And my relative, without any concern says: And why the cat?

Why not you? And the cat lifts its lovely head, cozy’s into

Its bearer’s arms, purrs softly, and blinks out, with remarkable

Confidence, with an assured surety, from bejeweled eyes: Yes, why not you?

–by Ken McKeon