Our long-gone Kitty Souris was a hunter: mice, birds, lizards; owl-talon scars in her flanks – we couldn’t keep her in the house. Now Latches longs to roam the unknown wild. For the sake of birds, lizards, and black cat, we try to keep her safe in the house….
Seduction
for Kitty Souris
Coyotes weave the ridge with polyphonic song.
They call our cat. She loves the bones
of small night creatures skittering their hunger
dances in the dark. Coyotes sing that song.
They sing anybody’s hunger under an empty moon.
Our cat sharps the chitter of her jaws.
She has no sense of size. Owl talon, cougar claw,
coyote calling. She’s sweet as salmon from a tin
And safe inside our doors. We snap the latch
and listen. Coyotes go on improvising song
that touches a raw hunger. How soft it sings
the moon the dark and just to her.
~ Taylor Graham
from Still Life with Wood Smoke (Mt. Aukum Press, 2002)
