13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT A CATAuthor(s): WAYNE BROWNSource: Caribbean Quarterly, Vol. 16, No. 3 (September 1970), pp. 21-22Published by: University of the West Indies and Caribbean QuarterlyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40653166 .

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13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT A CAT.

I. In the Beginning the cat Stood for a while at the edge of the world. On the seventh day It moved in, Like your dead neighbour's, casually.

II. Adam and cowering Eve Felt the eyes watching And vainly tried To cover their privates: but all that night The cats streamed in through the garden gate.

III. When dogs die Their entrails are dragged Out of dustbins by cats, who devour them.

IV. Noah, while the others stood around in pairs, Reached forward to greet the bird with the branch, But the cat killed it With one slap.

V. The whit« cat's eyelids rock shut. The Alps are completely snowed under.

VI. Antony dead, the woman dead, Rome hushed and waiting, emptily The cat stalked out of the palace.

VII. O daughters of Africa Your warriors are slain. The night is a black cat With yellow eyes.

VIII. Arthur, cantering back to the castle After an exhausting peace, Noticed a cat trapped halfway Up a tree trunk.

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IX. Whether what woke you sounded like A dropped nailftle Or a bottle Or the night of the sailors, think: The cat's in your garbage Woman.

X. I do not know much About cats. And I know I do not know. Still, Cats in the linen Scare me.

XI. Five hundred Viet Cong captured, Race riots in Atlanta. Glancing sideways, hurriedly crossing the lit street, The cat loped off down an alley.

XII. Dying in his sleep, one step past death, Heard the love-scream of cats and made a terrible effort to sit up.

XIII. The morning after the bomb Was dropped, I woke early. Silence past stillness, a city in ruins . . . My hand touched fur and the cat purred.

WAYNE BROWN

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