Cats and jewelry

HOW DIAMONDS ARE FOR CATS



Butterfly’s a fascinated feline
Bound by baubles
Glittering gold or
Prismatic moonlight
Through faceted shafts of jewels.


She captures
The flame in her own beams,
Takes the gleam, a ring,
To the glazed tile
Flooded by the silver moon.


Her own agates had disdained
Emeralds or tiger’s eyes or jade—
Even an opal of fire—
Chose only the incandescent ice.


What taste!
How astute!


Sleek in her calico,
Odalisque,
She disavows a theft.
Such sparkle was her due.



8/30/1980

"How Diamonds Are for Cats" was first published in Monsters in a Half-way House, 1981.  Another serendepitous moment.  My sister had left her jewelry box open on the dining room table.  Our calico cat Butterfly had chosen--of all the possible items--a diamond ring and taken it to the kitchen floor where the moonlight like a spotlight illuminated the area. I had risen from sleep to get a drink of water and saw the cat, entranced by the glittering diamond, lying on the kitchen floor.  When I picked up the ring to return it to the box, Butterfly gave an irritated "meow" to show her displeasure at losing the instrument of her pleasure.  I imagine that to a cat's sensitive eyes, looking at a diamond in the moonlight must be like listening to Mozart's 20th concerto in the rain or viewing the Grand Canyon at sunset--a flood of sensations.
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