THUGWISE CAT

“Which is?” She’ll sound impatient, but I’ll
Know that she is really enjoying my eccentricity
“He needs half of my mine, you see, he cannot be
Too much like me, if I had too much of me I’d kill myself
But he can’t be too different, I’d lose interest immediately.
He needs the good half, the part of me I love, and I will
Have the parts of him he loves, so that together we are,
Something never lonely, but instead content.”
For the first the time in our conversation
The clerk has warm, Mediterranean blue eyes
She begins pressing buttons, and the register gets
Smokey, I hear static, and see electrical sparks flash and surge
Finally, though, the receipt shoots high into the air, and flutters
Into my hands, and the magical wisdom of the universe reads
“There’s an animal shelter down the road, so go get a cat. Get two.”
I tip my imaginary hat
To the shocked clerk trying to fix
The unraveling machine, as I stroll out
Deciding to name them ‘Cheshire’ and ‘Jeff Goldblum.’
Author bio: Zara Hanif is an Engish/Creative Writing major at Rhode Island College.
She has been published in her College's lit mag Shoreline this year as well. She is
currently dating a short/tall, thin/fat male, with dark/light skin, and is very content.
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