The Family Cat
The family cat, it
died the day
That everybody was
away.
When they got home,
they were distraught,
Because it was an
after thought
To check it, so they
did not find
The furry corpse it
left behind
Until it had been
dead awhile.
No rub, no purr, no
cheerful smile.
Though deeply
grieved, they did not sit,
Instead they thought
to bury it.
The woman dug the
shallow grave,
The boy, one final
farewell gave,
Then laid its
lifeless body down
Into the damp earth,
cold and brown.
The woman, bent to
cover up
The cat, encountered
one hiccup,
The overlooked
forgotten sin,
Of rigor mortis
setting in.
And though poor puss
was unaware,
His stiffened tail
stood in the air
In homage to the
terminal;
A stark and forlorn
sentinel.
The woman cried and
tried in vain
To lay the cats tail
down again,
Until so wracked with
grief, and sick,
She wedged it 'neath
a garden brick.
The boy was taken by
a fit,
The woman first
thought grief was it,
But on a closer look
she found
Him laughing,
writhing on the ground.
"You horrid
child, your cat has died,
You shouldn't laugh
at that!" she cried.
But still he laughed,
hysterical,
He found her antics
comical.
The woman, still to
end her task
To put the cat to
rest at last,
So angry with the boy
that she
Attacked to job
ferociously.
And muttered to
herself the while;
What horrid boy could
be so vile?
How could he err so
callously?
To find such mirth in
tragedy?
But still he laughed
until he cried,
The woman hot and
fuming tried
To finish planting
puss away,
That done, she had
some words to say.
"You stop that
laughing now! You hear?"
She took the poor boy
by the ear
And cracked him
'cross his curly dome,
"Just wait until
your father's home!"
With that, she
marched him to the house
To wait for her
expected spouse.
That night the
household would resound
With screeches,
laughter, round and round,
The story swinging to
and fro
From tales of mirth,
to grief and woe
As one another did
regale
The story of the dead
cats tail.
But down the bottom
of the hill,
A little mound of
dirt there still,
With time and wind
and weathering,
The garden brick's
uncovering!
Oh may we never see
the day
When earth and brick
erode away,
Exposing such a
grievous view,
Of resurrected tail
anew!
By - Stringybark
