The cats that live in between

The cats that live in between

There’s the front porch cat. 

There is the back porch cat, 

& there is the cats that live in between.


It’s not that they are different, 

it’s not that they are mean

It’s by no fault of their own that they are cats in between. 

living within these walls, 

Chasing one another as the urge calls,

One a girl the other like a brother.

  

Surging through dining furniture 

between the legs 

the overhang 

and all.

Narrowly dodging beams overhead

Missing one would knock them instead


They pass through the wall

Through the portal built within,

To the Catio outside into the sun 

where I swear they grin

Allowing them space

Air and grace

To be the cats in between.


Neither the front porch cat whose name is the same

Nor the back porch cat, who we call Penny

Their lives together are simple and don’t require many

living together, nice and never mean

But these are not the cats in-between . 


The cat that’s the oldest, 

a Bombay, black as the night and always the boldest

Never wanting to take flight, or run out the door to be lost in the night

And we call him Frig, after Oden’s wife

She is a cat in-between, living the life


the other, the youngest, fast and in action

Is freaked by noises and other distraction

A foot fall to close or a noise to loud 

makes him run and hide, his head now in a cloud

we call him hammy, the play,Hamilton, is to blame. 

Those cats in between are not the same.


Frig and Hammy, the cats in-between

Live together, much different

And never mean.

That’s the life of

The cats in-between.


John Alden

11/26/2024


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