In which the Pirate Queen is rescued by The Cat
She breathes, three in, six out
As she readies herself she prays to God she’ll be able to sleep brushes her teeth takes her pills finds the three pillows that make up her support crew folds back the coverlet and lifts herself onto the decks of the bedtime boat turning off the light the night sparks against her sheets the furnace deep below the room fires up she listens to its roar suddenly rain and wind and thoughts she breathes three in six out three in her grandson leaps from a bridge her daughter calls and calls from another country her wife forgets her name “I am The Pirate Queen” she whispers and fire races up her legs through her belly along her arms The Pirate Queen tosses on the dark waters while at her bedside the clock begins to grow its face luminous and pulsing its voice a guttural ticktock it presses forward, she bends her back towards it she can feel its mechanisms on her spine metal hands pierce the exposed skin there Suddenly The Cat from the hallway. The Cat leaps onto the bed steps across her legs, walks along her bones finds the soft belly of the Pirate Queen and curls there. The Cat starts to purr. And the Pirate Queen breathes three in and six out, three in …
Who doesn’t struggle with sleep now and then? But if you have a cat in your life, that struggle often ends with her wonderful purring and warm body next to your heart.
The illustration with this poem, and some of the others, was created be Dall-E - a robot.