Six Meditations on Jade, a Black Cat

You are the shadow
slid across bed sheets,
lamplight cast blue
upon your night.

Your restless play
tips and spills
a cup of water
above my head.

Passion eyes swell
jade to black;
raspy purrs
tickle my nose.

You spring silently
shelf to shelf
until you arch and rub
the ceiling.

Darkness crouches
in the weeds
beneath a black menace
cawing from the fence.

You're scorched
from walking power lines,
switching your tail for balance
at sixty cycles per second.

Scott Speck
06/18/99