Crazy Cat Lady

A stray cat wandering in a field.

I cradled him, fresh from a morning
surveying his kingdom, into my face;

smelled winter beneath his fur,
flowerbeds behind his collar.

Wondered at those who collect these
haughty envoys, risking the ire

of municipal codes and threadbare
trope of crippling loneliness

to surround themselves with smells of
life, now, beyond their grasp.

,