black_cat raze i met her in the park a year ago. she was wearing a silver collar with a heart-shaped name tag. she snuck up behind an english sheepdog. she wanted to see what he was made of. bones and hair and soft meat, she thought. like her. but different. he didn't notice her. after he left with his human, she climbed up a tree. she got back down to the dirt when she saw me. she came over. to see what i was made of. i crouched down and held out my hand so she could smell it. she stared at me with green eyes. emeralds that could cut through anything. she saw a larger cat without a tail that walked on two legs. she shoved her body into me and started petting herself with my hand. i saw her today for the second time. she remembered me. "i didn't think i'd see you again," i said. i wish i had my camera with me. but let my eyes be a pair of prime lenses, and let my fingers sketch what they saw before any of these details disappear. her coat was dirty but soft all the way through. her collar was gone. she flopped down on the ground and did log rolls. she stopped on her back, telling me to pet her stomach. i listened. she tucked her tail between the bottom and the backrest of the nearest bench and stared at me, taking pictures of her own with the phosphor set deep in her skull. "one of these days you need to tell me what your name is," i said. she smirked. maybe someday. but not today. i turned to look at her when i was leaving. she was halfway up a tree. the sun might not know it's a star, but it played the part today. and if that was an early taste of what spring might bring, i'll roll it around on my tongue until it's nothing but sweet-smelling spit. 220310 ... raze she was standing on the skeleton of sidewalk that separates the street from the park. right around the femur, i figure. i called her kitty. because i still don't know her name. kitty, i said. hey kitty. she eased her body between two iron pickets and rambled my way. i've never seen anything move with such unhurried elegance. she thinks she has all the time in the world. let her think that. let her stay beautiful and ignorant forever. i crouched down to pet her. she noticed a few squirrels. her eyes followed them for a while. her tail did a slow sideways dance. but she left them alone. she found a cluster of twigs fused together and raised the longest one with her forehead. hoisted it up just to prove she could. she made me laugh. then she rolled around on the ground and we played together. 220402 ... raze we met again in an alley off of argyle. the city had the street blocked off. they were reconstructing the water mains. nothing needed rebuilding. it was a "make work" project. an excuse to eat up a few million dollars of tax money destroying something functional and putting it back together shittier than it was before. they had all these unattended raised blue pipes set up. emaciated water slides no living thing could ride. she spoke to me for the first time. not in any language i knew. but i understood what she was trying to say. when we were almost touching, one of the pipes fell over and broke the spell. she ran away. 220522 ... raze i thought i saw her from a distance, coiled into a squat. just like a rabbit. it was a pile of leaves. 220807 what's it to you? who go blather from