I've forgotten to feed the cats.
Of course, I've forgotten.
Because the cats are dead.
But still it haunts me
The forgetting.
The neglect.
The guilt of all I could have done,
and maybe I didn't.
The lengths I could have gone to
that I cut short.
The dream I had
of a cat box
in my mother's bedroom,
and I can only ask
did I change it enough?
Is that why she left?
Do you think she
got out
through the cat door?
Is that how
she escaped?
If I had
tried harder,
could I have
blocked
her exit,
kept her
here?
Would she be with me now
had I
tried harder
in my dreams?
I've got to try harder,
to dream harder,
to dream her back.
Cats do come back
you know.
Perhaps Mother
will too.
If only
I dream
hard enough.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem