Cat Poetry

WHILST ON HOLIDAY ABROAD

“Is it nothing to you, all ye who pass by…?(Lamentations 1 v12)


What would you do with a little blind kitten
A kitten of three weeks old?
Chased from a room
By a woman with a broom
Whilst her children laugh and scold.
Standing with your wife, as it flees for its life,
As it scrambles past the feet
Of the walkers on the street,
You ask yourself the question:
(Have you really any option?)
“What shall we do with this little blind kitten,
This kitten of three weeks old?”

You can leave it to its fate –
It won’t have long to wait
For someone else to see it
And take delight to tease it,
Or to maim it or misuse it.
Who’s to stop them, if they choose it?
So what will you do with this little blind kitten,
This kitten of three weeks old?

You may lift it from the street,
From amongst the passer’s feet
And then hold it close to your breast;
You may feel its tiny heart
Pumping blood to every part
Of its thin little frame.
It never had a name,
For who would give a name to a little blind kitten
A kitten of three weeks old?

Yet God made that kitten, that little blind kitten
And God gave it life
Amid a world of strife,
A world of thrusting, pushing, cursing, callous men.
To what purpose did He make it?
Did He make it, then forsake it?
The answer lies beyond our human ken.
Instead He gives the option
And puts to you the question:
“Will you leave it, will you take it,
Sad or happy will you make it?
For it really cannot live for very long.”

You pick it up and feed it,
Perhaps some lonely soul may need it,
Make a home for it and heed the mews it makes.
So back to your hotel - you mustn’t mind the smell –
For a while^you can conceal it –quite against the regulations
For, those taking their vacations
Are not welcome with their pets and especially, we’re told
When they’re grubby little kittens, blind little kittens,
Little kittens of three weeks old.

But soon the time must come
When begins your journey home
And you must finally decide
What to do.
Do you take it on the plane,
In the hope, however vain,
That its life can somehow start again with you?
Import rules and regulations
Allow no such nice solutions,
And so the problem still remains unsolved:
What do you do with this kitten, this little blind kitten
This kitten of three weeks old?

There is no other way: You must end its little day
And make its end as painless as can be.
A gentle, small injection
Will end its long affliction
And take it back to God from whom it came.

Yet perhaps this little kitten, this blind and helpless kitten
Has justified its life just the same,
For it has given you
Another chance to do
A little good, amidst a world of pain;
To suffer with this kitten,
And a million other kittens
And dogs and cats and animals untold.
See creation through God’s eyes,
Yourself, less blinded to its cries
To you for help, for pity, for a friend.

Then perhaps, one day in heaven you’ll see that little kitten
With eyes restored, no longer thin or cold
As it was when first you saw it
And picked it up and bore it
Home - that kitten of three weeks old.
ACS





“No one must shut his eyes and regard as non-existent the sufferings of which he spares himself the sight. “
Albert Schweizer