A Syzygy of Neighborhood Cats

Jesse Doiron

November 7, 2022

Across the lawns, three cats sit still –

a garden gnome

a plasticized flamingo

a jockey in his colored silks

– cats mark their properties.

They wait for what cats wait for here –

a twitch of ear

a disruption in the spine

a limply raised or lowered limb

– time means nothing to them.

Then, of a sudden, they align –

eyes un-thin   

whiskered muzzles open wide 

trembling throats grumble loud

– no longer, cats sit still.

Jesse Doiron spent 13 years overseas in countries where he often felt as if he were a “thing” that had human qualities but couldn’t communicate them. He teaches college in Texas, now, to people a third his age. He still feels, often, as if he is a “thing” that has human qualities but can’t communicate them.