ETHAN GOFFMAN

The Blue Jay and the Tuxedo Cat

A blue jay and a tuxedo cat outside the big picture window.

I thought, “My, what an excellent subject for a poem or a short story,

one that ends with the cat licking its lips, feathers fluttering
on wisps of empty air,
feathers
slowly floating
floating slowly.”

As it happened, the blue jay was perched on a high branch, oblivious.

he cat, warm and fuzzy, ambled along, half cartoon, half pet.

I knew that the cat was a wild creature,

wild in spirit, wild at heart,
hunting for its supper,
painted in a tuxedo disguise.

I yearned for the cat to survive,

on a diet of cartoon birds,
not the gorgeous jay
blue as blue,
preening itself on a high branch.

The cat would live,

for a while,
on small rodents
and unlucky birds
that came too close.

The blue jay and the tuxedo, framed eternally

in the wide picture window
opposite corners of a verdant painting.


*****************copyright Ethan Goffman

Thinking of Spring in the Fall

the seasons melt

heat wave, cold snap

somehow the trees know to

leave leaf litter, solemn sacrifice

for future plants, future planet

it’s all tied to the circular motions

of our Earth

dancing on an invisible axis

tenacious on its annual trip

led by god’s unerring hand

the unwavering laws of physics

the seasons are subtly different

change creeps forward

the trees maintain their rhythms

more or less

brilliant oranges and purples

roughly on schedule

in spring adolescents break out

yearning for love

to leave their own gift to the

cursed future

the command “be fruitful and multiply”

is ages past

its expiration date

my spring long past

i ponder when to rake up

the annual sacrifice

prepare the lawn for

another next year

my spring is long past

my leaves long shed

i’m barren and in fall now

having left no gift to the future

no new mouths to suck

energy from our tired

mother earth

still i remember, yearn a little

each day as the planet spins

***********************copyright Ethan Goffman