Cheryl Caesar
Metaphors
Two a.m. A muffled crooning
Rises through the silent house.
Through my door, a cat is singing,
Mouth engorged with white toymouse.
How is this a gift? I gave it.
And I sure don’t want it now.
She wants tuna. She’s created
Tokens in exchange for chow.
Or it’s something darker? Blackmail?
“Feed me now or else I’ll bring
Realmouse in here and release him.
Then I’ll get to hear you sing!”
Maybe that’s too harsh. She’s just
A child who craves a midnight sweet.
Maybe she has just invented
Interspecies trick-or-treat.
Truth is I have no idea
What’s inside that walnut skull.
All the meat is hidden, so I
Speculate about the hull.
Humans, felines, all God’s creatures
Croon to us through wooden doors.
If we are to live together—
Choose the kindest metaphors.
Poems by Cheryl Caesar have appeared in Writers Resist, The Mark Literary Review, Agony Opera, Cream and Crimson, Total Eclipse, Prachya, The Trinity Review, The Mojave River Review, Panoply and Winedrunk Sidewalk, among other venues. Caesar holds a doctorate in comparative literature from the Sorbonne. She lives in East Lansing and teaches writing at Michigan State University.
SUBMIT to What Rough Beast via our SUBMITTABLE site.