Sleeping Out

What it is we cats get up to
when we don’t come home?

What do we do? Where do we go?
Bet you humans would like to know.

Do we make a magic circle
recite poetry, dance and chortle?

Do we form an ancient pack
and prey along the railway track?

Do we set the night on fire
eyes emerald, sapphire?

Do we have a brawling, fur-flying,
caterwauling old knees-up?

Do we find a partner
and have a lovey-dovey smooch-up?

Or do I, bit-of-a-loner,
slink off under the warmth
of a parked car for shelter?

That’s for me to know and you to wonder.

 

Copyright: from The Poet Cat (Bloomsbury, 2000), © Grace Nichols 2000, used by permission of the author

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Grace’s poems are full of the sounds and stories of Guyana, the Caribbean country where she was born and grew up, often drawing on its ...

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