Poem 241

I was always fascinated how cats studiously take no interest in their own reflections … my breakthrough moment here is grasping that as soon as anything recognises itself outside of itself then it is also forced to recognise its own mortality – to have no perspective on yourself is to never (have to) consider death … the price of self awareness, the fruit of the tree that makes Adam and Eve ‘doomed to die’ …

… this is no doubt the reason cats are so laid back …

Henry Ignoring The Big Questions

The cat is sitting by the window
and his orange reflection with the pink hole
         of a yawn
is coming and going
as the sun smoulders through damp cloud

          he is indifferent to mirrors
refusing to meet his own eyes and now
I see why

            if he stays safely stapled inside this fur
            avoiding reflections
            he'll never have to ask
why it is that flaming solid and stubborn
before the window at dinnertime
he suddenly sees himself
                                               extinguished