Cat Language by Joy Harold Helsing

Cat Language
by Joy Harold Helsing

Sometimes when I try
to speak their feline tongue
they echo me
correcting
my pronunciation

If I hiss a warning
as one starts to sharpen claws
on the new chair
they pretend
they don't get my meaning

They have ways
to communicate
I cannot share
twitches of ears
tail whiskers
fluffed fur arched back
scent
coded cries

Though I think
they understand
my murmurings
in their world
I'll always be
that clumsy
inarticulate
oaf



Joy Harold Helsing is an ex-salesclerk, ex-secretary, ex-textbook editor, ex-psychologist, ex-college instructor, ex-New Englander and ex-San Franciscan who now lives in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Northern California. Her work has appeared in many journals and she has published three chapbooks and one book, Confessions of the Hare.