Resurrection And The Cat Poem by gershon hepner

My cat Figaro was lying
on a paper on John Donne
which tells us that he said that dying
is not the end of life. Re-run
comes with a resurrection, and
this concept greatly pleased my cat
who such a thought would understand,
not smelling in it any rat
as I do, since I’ve never seen
a man who after dying thrives.
What John Donne strangely seemed to mean
makes sense to Figaro, nine lives
is what they’ve told him he’ll receive,
each one a mini-resurrection.
I do not plan to undeceive
the feline—I’ve too much affection
for Figaro to tell him he
will live but once and after that
will die like humans he can see
address him though he’s just a cat.

Inspired by my cat Figaro, who spent Saturday afternoon lying on an article by Mark Ford, reviewing Ramie Targoff’s book “John Donne, Body and Soul” in the NYR, December 17,2009 (“Resurrecting John Donne”) . I took six photos of Figaro lying on the article, and Linda has arranged them, sending them to her sister Susan whoio lives in Cambridge and is a sculptor. Hopefully Figaro will be immortalized in stone and won’t need noine lives.


1/24/10