Quiet Like the Cat | By Puma Perl

I heard footsteps at my door

It was just my neighbor,

midnight wandering the hall

He whistles for his striped cat,

the one he calls Mary Jane

His sons are named Jackson

and Sam after his favorite actor,

although he didn’t like Pulp Fiction

Too disrespectful to the Lord

It’s hard up here on the 13th Floor

His best buddy passed two years ago,

kept his condition to himself

The lawyer down the hall died, too,

and Rosie next door was moved

to a nursing home after she was caught

shoplifting at Rite-Aid for the third time

The happy couple down the hall

lit out to their cabin in the Poconos

and the large family next to them

never leaves their apartment

So, it’s just my neighbor, his wife,

and the striped cat he calls Mary Jane

Jackson and Sam can’t visit

Maybe when things calm down,

whatever that means these days

He wonders if the grandchildren

will remember when he hugged them,

if they know he’s more than a face

behind a computer screen

It gets too quiet late at night

except for the fireworks

I haven’t been out after dark

more than a few times

Used to be I rarely saw the sun

Sometimes I feel like the only one

still alive in this concrete tower

until I hear my neighbor whistling

for the striped cat he calls Mary Jane.

© puma perl, 07/01/2020

Puma Perl is a poet and writer, with five solo collections in print. The most recent is Birthdays Before and After (Beyond Baroque Books, 2019.) She is the producer/creator of Puma’s Pandemonium, which brings spoken word together with rock and roll, and she performs regularly with her band Puma Perl and Friends. She’s received three New York Press Association awards in recognition of her journalism, and is the recipient of the 2016 Acker Award in the category of writing. Her most recent books can be found by clicking here.

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