Buddha Cat and Cathryn Essinger

Cathryn Essinger has graciously allowed me to share the poem below, which originally appeared in The New Zoo Poetry Review. Cathryn is the author of two poetry collections, A Desk in the Elephant House (Texas Tech University Press, 1998), winner of the Walt McDonald First Book Award, and My Dog Does Not Read Plato (Main Street Rag, 2004).

Koan in Black and White

On Groundhog’s Day, I set our fat black cat
out in the snow to ask her if she sees
her own shadow.

Her flat yellow stare tells me all I need to know
about cats and snow and the inevitability
of spring.

I decide to take her picture, hoping to capture
that petulant glare, but she blinks just as
the shutter clicks

and my photo is nothing more than a silhouette,
neither front nor back, of a little black buddha
meditating

in a snowy field. But when I show the picture
to my husband, he who doesn’t believe in
superstitions,

he who owns no lucky anything, all he can ask
is “Are we out of color film?” which I think
proves

some point, and which he says, pointing to
the absence of the cat’s plump shadow,
proves nothing.

Possibly related posts:

Artsy Cats

Cat with Bard

The British press

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