I was honored to have two poems published in the Georgia Poetry Society's 2020 anthology, The Reach of Song. I wrote "Circling Magic" for my cat Magic who crossed the rainbow bridge in 2019 because of severe health issues. No food I offered him seemed to satisfy his hunger. After I wrote the poem, I thought about how much humans are sometimes like cats.
Circling Magic
Round and round he goes,
circling the kitchen island,
a miniature black land shark
in a wild feeding frenzy.
He doesn’t care that
I’m trying to brew
my morning coffee.
It doesn’t matter
that I just fed him
and there’s food in his dish.
He opens his mouth to meow,
but no sound comes out.
That’s his signature move.
I get the point.
He’s not hungry.
He just wants me to
give him something better.
I’m not sure he knows
what he wants,
but there he is,
with his yellow eyes
and his silent meow,
reminding me he wants
more of something.
I drop a thin piece
of roast beef in his dish.
He lifts it with his teeth,
shakes it as if he’s killing prey,
and devours it in tiny bites.
Then his rounds begin once again.
Circling Magic, a furry, gentle predator
with his finicky, gourmet taste,
always wanting more of something.
C S Taylor
