Poetry Double Feature: Unboxing, Cat and Mouse

Unboxing

Sinister plastic. Slipping, snaking, binding my legs

Bubbles upon bubbles of wrap, suffocating my sense of perfectionism

Because there’s no way I can pop them all

Hazy instructions laid out in an array of foreign symbols, 

I can’t read my way out of the box.

We are mere playthings, slaves to tiny particles of dust

And sinister cardboard. Sneezing, slowing, a square space surrounding

Stagnant in a state of ever-changing affairs, the door above us is taped closed. 

Sinister tape. Sniffing, sighing, wondering: what’s it like outside? 

Maybe there’s hope, maybe there’s life, 

Maybe there’s a way to put these confines behind us. 

Unboxing is tempting. 

Sinister temptation. 

Sitting, sitting, more sitting, 

Waiting, and waiting, waiting ‘round some more, till it’s all safe,

Stuck in a box in a box in a box in a box.

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Cat and Mouse

I follow you wherever you go

I follow you and your modest disposition,

Chasing after quiet, whispering squeaks,

Not constrained by the bounds of my terrain

My eyes are peeled, watching for any sign you leave in your wake,

Any omen that may lead me to you

Sustained in a hunt I partake in day by day

There’s a certain kind of regret that ruffles my fur

My tail twisting in discontent and in sorrow

As I crave to steal you away

To hear you breathing, side by side,

Two cycles spinning in opposing directions yet part of the same whole

Ironically, I have nightmares of hurting you,

My claws piercing your delicate hide,

Dark eyes quivering with fear, but also with acceptance

It is my destiny, my gradual infinity

It is how nature prescribes it,

For we cannot all reach the prizes we seek,

The mouse burrows a hole in the walls of my heart

I yowl in longing for a soul who can comprehend

The solitude, the chase, the hunter’s crouch I am forever stationed in

A remorse, a repentance, a guilt that cannot leave

Like a tiger cannot change her stripes

I yearn for you, I hunger for you,

I am not constrained by the bounds of your vision. 

You can’t see me, but I follow you wherever you go.