Cats And Dogs Poem by gershon hepner

Cats And Dogs



CATS AND DOGS


“We move in our apartness and our pride, ”
say cats and Auden, as he took their side
against the dogs who follow in man’s shade,
and feel by showing love they’ve got it made
in the shade, whereas the cat perceives
of passion that, although apart from man’s,
is something that, deluded, man believes
reflects a feline feeling of romance.
Like calls to like, and both relieve by sharing
their feelings with us in their different ways,
while we relieve theirs too, by caring
for both, attempting vainly to liaise
with cats who live their own lives––they have nine––
succeeding far more often with a hound
with which we realistically entwine
because they share with us a common ground,
whereas relationships with cats whose pigments
and fur we tend to idolize are based
on our imagination, cats mere figments
of it and all the time with them, no waste,
because they fill gaps in our lonely lives
which, if they are not filled by husbands or
our children and grandchildren and our wives
are filled by furry creature we adore.

Inspired by a poem by W. H. Auden “The Single Creature

DOG The single creature leads a partial life,
Man by his mind, and by his nose the hound;
He needs the deep emotions I can give,
I scent him in a vaster hunting ground.

CATS Like calls to like, to share is to relieve,
And sympathy the root bears love the flower;
He feels with us, and in him we perceive
A common passion for the lonely hour.

CATS We move in our apartness and our pride,
About the decent dwellings he has made:
DOG In all his walks I follow at his side,
His faithful servant and his loving shade.

An alternate version for the penultimate line is “if we are male cat-lovers, our dear wives”.

11/27/09

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