IN THE GARDEN Poem by Rutger Kopland

When that hole had been dug in the garden,
that cat there still next to it in the grass,
but time did not stop, I had to go on,

but I had not taken hold of that cat,
by the skin of its neck, as you have to,
if the cat doesn't want to come or go,

and that cat, when I had taken hold of it
all the same, and still had not let go,
not filled in that hole and stamped it flat,

when the grass was not yet growing again
over that spot, as though I had never done
all that, but that cat, this far too unmoving

not wanting to, what could I do with that
hand of mine, that hole in the garden.