Sherry Chandler

Cat with aria

I met Jane K. Kretschmann, the author of this week’s cat poem, at the Kentucky Women Writers Conference earlier this year, and she graciously agreed to share “Variations on a Theme.” This poem won 1st Place in the Pets category of the Arizona State Poetry Society contest. It was published in Sandcutters, Dec. 2004.

The kitten is Bubba, at home in my husband’s studio, aka his woodworking shop.

Variations on a Theme

“My dog does not read Plato.” Cathryn Essinger

Like Cathy Essinger’s dog, my cats
never cared much for philosophy,
preferring instead the finer art
of Italian opera.

Chessie worships Caruso.
When he sings “la donna é mobile”
Chess hums along,
her big eyes rounding,
sure he sings of her fickleness.
But she sits sphinx-like, quiet,
for love of the celestial Aida
or the pain in Pagliacci’s heart.

Lucky prefers the ladies—
Amelita, Luisa, Lucrezia,
Geraldine. Perhaps he recalls
how in one of his earlier lives
he curled at the diva’s feet
as she sat in her dressing room
or brought her half-dead gifts
before she returned to the stage,
to collapse into her lover’s arms or
confess to murdering a hated husband.

Bear was also an aficionado
especially of La Bohème,
at home in the artists’ studio,
a feline poet, painter, pleased
to share the privation of
Rodolpho, Marcello, Mimi.
He now attends La Scala, I’m sure,
enjoying a life of exquisite art
where arias flow like fountains.

                –Jane K. Kretschmann

1. Theme and Variation
2. Springfed Chapbook #63: Jane Kretschmann.
3. Jane Gentry on Good Morning America
4. Darling companions
5. Buddha Cat and Cathryn Essinger

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