On Cats: A Poem In Two Voices

• Samuel Strange, Grade 2
• Poetry
• 2018

VOICE 1: Nat’s owner
There was a young cat called Nat;
Who sat on a big blue mat.
He saw a long claw
At the end of a paw;
And thought he’d better lie flat.
VOICE 2: Nat himself
They say I am like a ball of wool: Soft and strokable.
My whiskers twitch like the hands of a clock,
Ticking time for my tail
Which sways like a snake charmer’s python.
(Is it even mine?)
I slink out of the room like a sloth.
And cross the garden — a flash of polka dot.
My purr’s like a ghost’s whisper,
But when I lap from the bird bath
I am a rhythmic riptide,
Or a storm cloud over the African bush.