11:04pm October 25, 2014

Haiku #4: Mother’s Sacrifice

feral cat knew traps
told my friend: take care of him
led her kitten in

…

Like most of my haikus, this is from a true story. If you want to read more about Coal (the mother cat), and Shadow (her kitten), and even see videos of them, I would recommend reading Cats (topic submitted by kriswald) on my tumblr,. The haiku is the short, poetic version. The tumblr post is the long, detailed version. Both have their merits and their drawbacks.

I hope they will give you a glimpse into the way that a mother’s love and self-sacrifice doesn’t change just because the species has changed and she isn’t human. Just as the squirrel haiku shows that a mother’s exasperation with a tiresome toddler doesn’t change either. The look on that ma squirrel’s face, I’ve seen on humans, cats, dogs, rodents, anyone who has kids and is fed up to here with them.

Additionally, as usual, this was originally posted to my main poetry blog, which has a comment section you’re free to use to discuss any of these poems.

I have been very happy to see both of my parents show up in that comments section, especially since they’re not from a generation where computer use comes easily. (They’re turning 73 and 68 this year, assuming my father makes it to his 73rd birthday. Which he’s trying to do but I can see it taking a toll.) So to have them get on the computer and navigate Wordpress for the sake of communicating with me is an enormous gift, I don’t know if they realize how enormous a gift that is to me, that they are communicating in one of the only easy ways for me to communicate, even though it is quite hard for them. Anna and Ron: I appreciate every word you type to me. Writing these poems is part of how I show my appreciation for you, I hope you realize that.