First Snow

By Andrew Dickens

-- for v.p

She may not have seen snow
before, my feral cat, but sits
still as a statue here
with me on the stoop

regal and unperturbed
as the goddess Bastet
in Egyptian mythology

gazing out past long dead
stalks of weeds thrusting up
through this blanket
of white surrender.

First snow,
while all about us stretch
the shorn fields resting

filled with the patience
of nothing to do
nothing to say

no hungry mouths
to feed in far off China
nor in Gaza
nor down the lane
in derelict double-wides.

Now her imperious gaze
moves slowly from left to right
as if reading some ancient script
i cannot see nor understand

and turns to stare at me
reading the tea leaves
of my life

as if she holds
the Egyptian
Book of the Dead
in her heart

and knows everything
she needs to know

about me
about you
about all of this.

About the Poet:
Andrew Dickens, in his own words

"An old man who majored in English at Kansas University, taught English in Japan, sold investment diamonds in Honolulu, spent six years homeless on the streets of Austin, Texas, San Francisco, and Honolulu with seven months in a radical Christian cult in Honolulu. Ran the Honolulu Marathon in 1980. Been there, done that."