Life of a Studio Cat

As I sit each day thinking about you, as I look out the clear window;

Did you know, the window and you have many things in common? Transparent, like when we are together, showing me all of your sides,

It is similar to the couple below that creep silently past each night.

Their arms stretched out like a tightrope, yet, still hand in hand.

in an unspoken hurry, shifting their eyes rapidly. A forbidden love

not ready to be exposed to the bright days, quick and harsh judgment.

Like the unsure tone you use when your feelings bleed onto my ears.

Opening up to me, is comparable to the slow sliding of the open window.

Early summer breezes, sweet and warm breathe down my arched back,

filling my lungs with hopes for our future, all while you spin me tightly.

The midday sun turns our room into a bath of warmth, heating my black coat.

It is near to the warmth I feel when I am curled securely within your legs.

Pictures you paint to me about the adventures to come drip with optimism.

As stunning as the sunsets that wash the sky from orange to violet, then black.

My emerald eyes uncovered in the nighttime reflection, both in the window

and your eyes, are the images that reassure me, there is life outside this room.

The drops of water that dance against the bitter gray pane, remind me

of the tears that land in-between my velvet triangle ears. As the drops of water

depart from you chin, I am reminded once again that I am not your only love.

It’s hard at times, because the window has an outside, and you an inside.

Do you ever wonder what I do when the shades are shut and you are far away?

I look through my hollow shadow not finding peace in what I see, and close my mind.

Elizabeth Otter