The Cat, Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The Cat by Lawrence Ferlinghetti                  The cat                               licks its paw and         lies down in                             the bookshelf nook                                                                  She                                     can lie in a                                               sphinx position         without moving for so                                          many hours and then turn her head                                 to me and                                           rise and stretch        and turn                        her back to me and               lick her paw again as if                                     no real time had passed                      It hasn't                                     and she is the sphinx with                         all the time in the world                                              in the desert of her time              The cat                     knows where flies die                                sees ghosts in motes of air                                                    and shadows in sunbeams She hears                   the music of the spheres and        the hum in the wires of houses                            and the hum of the universe              in interstellar spaces                                                       but                 prefers domestic places                              and the hum of the heater "The Cat" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti from These Are My Rivers.