Self-Portrait As Mary Ruefle’s Kitten
—after On Sentimentality
“… if we fail to be moved by the kitten, something is terribly wrong.”
what to do cat around
nothing not a thing
just be
a causeless emotion
this hummingbird rumble
alive in poetry
balled in a lap or the slop
of kibble or prose
beyond the page
oscillates across the floor
like a ruffle now & then
then back again
lapping like a tongue
rueful tastes sweetness
yet cannot secrete
it or the eye
sees beauty
rough compressed
full of play
tries to sustain it
only to reduce it
Jay Brecker works and writes in southern California. His poems are forthcoming or have appeared in Permafrost, Lily Poetry Review, Ocean State Review, The Inflectionist Review, South 85 Journal, I-70 Review, RHINO Poetry, and elsewhere. His manuscript, A Ceiling is a Wall Seeking, was a semi-finalist for the 2020 Wheeler Prize for Poetry.