One day, you say
you take to paw
and leave home and hearth
-
Without leave
no - one sees
you make for trackless heath.
-
You are Scott or perhaps Wilson
in nineteen ten
and nobody is Markham
-
So you're a legion in Rome
two sixty BC
expanding into territories you'd never known.
-
Certainly, you're Hannibal
striding over alps
You'll teach them not to cross the Erbo.
-
But really, you're none of these things.
you're a cat,
and you're gone.
-
You're alone, and
nobody else will feed you.
and their attention is all wrong.
-
You turn your tail
and head for home.
Bloodied and battered,
-
at 5a.m. you fall from the roof
and mewl, dirty,
and crawl to my arms.
-
You see now?
There is no romantic adventure
to be had in this city.
A man was shot tonight,
and you look like death;
sound like pathos incarnate.
-
My boy, join me:
"Come friendly bombs,
and fall on Wolverhampton"
And curl to sleep on our duvet
-
The warmth of the combi-,
soothes the remnants of
our chilling dismay.
Never leave again, I pray.