Cat Attacks, Fun, Fault, Right Answer 5.3.2008 Poem by Margaret Alice

The Cat Attacks

I don’t like the new couch, it’s
bulky and strange and much
too small, I can’t lie in your lap,
the kids can’t fit in with us,

I loved the old one where all
four of us squeezed in, even
the cat, you complained we
might just as well have lived

In a one-roomed flat when we
all joined you on the couch,
now those days are gone,
you perch on the floor

While I sit alone, I wanted to
fall asleep in your lap as I
always do, now I’m sitting
upright, Tiaan took place

At my writing desk, Nici with
you on the floor, I’m alone on
the couch – This is not right!

Alone on the couch, watching TV,
hearing strange noises, when I
investigate the cat attacks

I can’t even lie down comfortably
on this new couch, and the cat’s
attacking – it just goes to show:

This is not right!



Drive Someone Nuts With Ridiculous Fun

There is a fountain of energy
that springs up in me when
I tell jokes or explain the
world in funny terms

But leave me alone to get
on with a long document
with boring terms deline-
ating plans made by nerds

No pictures - the arch-sin
as far as I’m concerned,
at least pictures save us
from utter despair -

And that energy drains away
like a river running dry, my
neck stiffening while I’m
bored out of my skull

Even listening to boring speeches
make me lose consciousness;
how on earth to survive life
without suffering when

I have to sit and stare at boredom
all day long, only now and again
able to drive someone nuts with
some ridiculous fun?



All My Fault

I always climb into the fire when
you light the gas in the fireplace
you warned me before, don’t do
that, but I never listen because you
are overprotective, then, obviously,

Tiaan followed his mother’s example
and fell with his hand against the hot
gas plate and your predictions came
true; a nasty burn and you could
happily say:

It is all due to YOU! – meaning me,
of course… so now while Nici is cutting
up vegetables with your Wű sthoff
Classic knives, dangerous and sharp,
I’m watching

With an eagle eye…



The Right Answer

Faced with a grandpa’s
complaint of social-worker
conspiracy for taking his
grandchild away, can this
experience be seen as
chosen by them?

Thoughts we think today
form the fabric of future
existence; compassion
and love leads to under-
standing; when trans-
lating a fight

Between social workers
and family, will love help
me interpret with insight;
subjectively involved
in the text

I feel like the little girl lost;
can’t think what the right
answer should be …