Poetry. To my cat in his golden years.

Ever More

Paul Klusman

The light arrives on time
Each day to mark the morn
We walk along a line
From the day we are born

Along the winding road
Until the journey's done
Stand before the ocean
To see the setting sun

Your boat is in the bay
And now an evening breeze
To call your soul away
Across the endless seas

And when you do set sail
Towards that distant shore
Your sun then out of sight
I'll love you ever more

A poem to my elderly plucky cat Oscar

Borrowed Time
Paul Klusman

My plucky cat my Oscar now
Is thin and old and yet somehow
He holds his tail in sturdy cheer
And holds the line another year

"How much longer?" I ask my friend,
"Before you face your final end?"
"How many of your nine lives gone?"
"How many suns to greet the dawn?"

He does not answer as cats are wise
And never given to compromise.

Pausing now for self reflection
I consider how, in the other direction
My cat could ask the same of me
How many sunsets might I see?

How did we meet in time and space?
As ever towards our resting place
We step along the daily grind
Side by side 'till one day find

The other gone and walk alone
The other gone and empty home.

But here for now your shining grace
And here for now your lovely face
To fill the hours of the afternoon
To feel your presence in the room

To share the joy of company
To hear the quiet symphony
Of moments passing out of time
Fixed here now in verse and rhyme

And breathing living sitting near
I'm glad that you're still here.