I tried to tease an augury out
of something inauspicious: A cricket
hooked on our drowsing cat’s paw.
The cat that assesses us
harshly when we sleep with both eyes
fully closed, allowing ourselves
to slip away and to forget
the rumors of twitching
prey, the flexing of claws.
This poem first appeared in Underbelly Press (Issue Four, July 2025, PDF )