Death of Felix 



Last Sunday pneumonia took him.

Cats don’t know the luxury

Of a common cold.

Several species noticed in their way.

The jays and robins did not chatter.

The dog nextdoor lay bored.

And a shrew ran boldy in the newmown grass.

 

Some say

His death did not diminish

But it caused a readjustment 

In the territory.



According to Descartes,

He was not sad inside

To die away from home.

What happened at the vet’s

In a cage among the cages,

Merely this:

The soulless fur machine broke down.



I would rest his case 

Upon his action.

He showed me more of love

Than I can guess in many of my kind.

Often would he choose our voice and hand

Above the food his stomach must have craved.

And fear, God, he knew fear!

Not  just the cringing 

From the other beasts,

But something more abstract and human.

Many times we saw him splayed

Across our bedroom screen

When the sun roared up the East.

Daylight drove him homeward

As the night does us.



Upon him I will shed few public tears.

We are half numb with all our human 

Death and rages.

But all last week I went at everything halfway.