Don't Let the Cat Starve

There’s a stray cat in my neighborhood.

Her eyes glow against the gloom of this forsaken land.

She still inhabits it nonetheless.

I wish she didn’t have to.

She is a regal creature,

but she’s lost,

she’s hungry.

I look forward to the days she wanders up to my porch.

Where she knows she’s always welcome.

Some days she wants me to pet her,

others, she just wants to lay on the porch.

I always open the door to let her in,

but she seems content on the porch.

I have milk in the fridge

and treats in the cabinet,

she just doesn’t know that.

She wanders off

to another house in the neighborhood,

quite frequently.

I wish she wouldn’t.

As that part of the neighborhood

is no place for this feline to frolic.

In this house lives a cruel man,

but she’s oddly drawn to him.

He once gave the cat a saucer of milk,

not much, but just enough

to get her to come back the following day,

which she did,

to find another saucer of milk.

One that was half empty.

Not half full–half empty.

The cat drinks the milk and wanders off;

a little sadder than she was the day before.

It wasn’t much,

but it was just enough

to get her to come back the following day.

The next day,

she returns to the man’s house to find an empty saucer.

The cruel man refuses to fill it

and instead sprays her with water.

She fearfully runs off.

The cat does not return the following day.

Instead, she wanders back to my porch

because she knows

it’ll keep her safe and warm.

I open the door,

I bet she wants some milk,

but she doesn’t move,

and neither do I.

I wouldn’t want to scare her off.

A few days go by,

she hasn’t returned to the cruel man’s house.

He starts to feel lonely.

He wants to see the cat.

He shakes a bag of treats;

she does not wander,

but sprints over to his house to have a treat.

There weren’t many treats,

but there were just enough

to get her to come back the following day.

The next day, she goes back.

No treats, no milk.

Just half a can of maggot-infested tuna

that’s been dug out from the trash.

The cat gets sick;

she vomits on my porch,

but she does not starve.

To her, that’s just enough

to go back the following day.