Walkabout Poem by Doug Lane

Wallace, as handsome a blue eyed cat
as you could ever hope to see
went on walkabout
while his mistress
was away.

If you sat on his sofa
Wallace might
approach your ear
and lightly nip it
in a most seductive way.
But only
if he liked you.

He was away
for weeks,
then months.
Surely he was dead.

Then one day Grommett,
his brother cat,
began to cry.
And sure enough
there was
the prodigal returned

to the backyard,
having scaled
the tall fence
to get there,
weighing half what he had
when he left,
his right front paw
hooked most awkwardly
and for heaven knows how long
through his collar.

"Wallace, where have you been?
Were you near,
or far? "
He never told us.
He kept the secret
of his adventures
to himself.

Gradually his fur returned
to the missing patches.
He filled out.
He was once again
movie star handsome.
But now he held
the secrets of
a separate life.
Experienced
near
or far?
The cat's
got his tongue.