My Cat (Monday Poem)

By Barbara Esbensen

 

 

My cat is asleep -- white paws

folded under

his chin     He is a soft gray

smudge on the round rug

 

Dozing in the sun

He is a warm round stone

with a fur collar

 

My cat is taking

a nap     Not a whisker

trembles    Not a hair

moves     His breath goes

softly in and out

 

Stay in your holes

mice!     My cat sees you

in his dreams

and he has left

his motor running!

 

 

from Forget-Me-Nots: Poems to Learn by Heart 

Selected by Mary Ann Hoberman

Little, Brown & Co, 2012 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[little tree] (Monday Poem)

by e. e. cummings

 

 

little tree
little silent Christmas tree
you are so little
you are more like a flower

who found you in the green forest
and were you very sorry to come away?
see            i will comfort you
because you smell so sweetly

i will kiss your cool bark
and hug you safe and tight
just as your mother would,
only don’t be afraid

look           the spangles
that sleep all the year in a dark box
dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine,
the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads,

put up your little arms
and i’ll give them all to you to hold.
every finger shall have its ring
and there won’t be a single place dark or unhappy

then when you’re quite dressed
you’ll stand in the window for everyone to see
and how they’ll stare!
oh but you’ll be very proud

and my little sister and i will take hands
and looking up at our beautiful tree
we’ll dance and sing
“Noel Noel”

 

Public domain