Paxi: Cat Napping - For Riette Ackermann Poem by Charl JF Cilliers

Like a bunch of coiled shadows she lies,
invisible as an owl in the dark.
Even her twitchings to a festering of flies
or an insistent nearby dog’s bark

reveal nothing of her presence in the night:
she sleeps incognito, as if lying in wait,
till her eyes open and pour out sapphires of light
(she yawns a dormant volcano) that illuminate

a world of her own, a world replete
with images that move in her dreams.
Slowly she uncurls her cradling feet
that walked her through sleep. Only dim gleams

of her night images remain in this harsh world
of bleak light that the rising sun has unfurled.