Old Roads, New Stories: A Literary Series
Why We Have Cats
Sometimes it’s almost sad to know you’re dying.
The old bed frame out in the front yard, tossed,
while the weekend joggers jog on by…
even all the squirrels uncurious.
The weeds don’t care you’re getting rid of things;
they’re a million indifferent persistences.
Still, these are the jobs—the sorting and stacking,
the doing-what-you-can about the fence,
and so you do. But also love someone
as much as cats love sunlight: all afternoon
and then again the next day. Geniuses.
What’s left on the to-do list? What’s a list?
But what if it starts raining? We’ll go in.
How do I know you love me? Here’s my chin.
Rob Carney’s first collection of creative nonfiction, Accidental Gardens, is out now from Stormbird Press, and his new book of poems, Call and Response, is available from Black Lawrence Press. Previous books include Facts and Figures, The Last Tiger is Somewhere, The Book of Sharks, and 88 Maps.
Read in interview with Rob Carney appearing in Terrain.org: “The Ocean is Full of Questions.”
Read Rob Carney’s Letter to America in Dear America: Letters of Hope, Habitat, Defiance, and Democracy, published by Terrain.org and Trinity University Press.
Read poetry by Rob Carney appearing in Terrain.org: 6th Annual Contest Finalist, 4th Annual Contest Winner, and Issue 30. And listen to an interview on Montana Public Radio about The Book of Sharks.
Header photo by , courtesy Pixabay.
