Cat Said Yellow

The cat said yellow

as I walked by

The cracked pavement

Eating at my heels

I don’t know why

Perhaps, from her sill

She saw how close the eye

Of sunset on my nape

And proffered warning

In her enigmatic way

Silent then, thereafter

With neither approbation

Nor accusatory burr

In the way she spoke

And nonchalantly licked a paw

As if to utter words

To the merely human

Was somehow to demean

The dignity of her kind

Still, when I stepped

From the kerb and looked askance

At where she had been

(Lace curtains barely flickering)

The traffic screeched

From a roar

To a fumed vibrato

The woman, with the tattooed

Sunburned arm

Leaning from the cab

Of the four by four

Pointing, at the candy coloured lights, said

In that innocuous

High pitched whine

Reeeooowwwwww!