the summer cat doesn’t plead or ask permission

her orange fur

is as independent as the stars

Whenever somebody starts to do something

it attracts attention, and with attention

advice

“I see you’re trying to lose weight. Well—you should go on the abascal diet—it worked for me. If you try to starve yourself, you’ll gain it all back again.”

The trick, is to make any change invisible, and not to talk about it…

An advice giver might say, “I can see you’re losing weight.”

and I’ll say, “Not really—I don’t think so.” Then I have to wear bulky sweatshirts under my regular shirt, so that I look the same, even if my face isn’t fat.

Change, is exciting to people. They don’t want to change, even though they say they do, and they don’t want other people to change, even though they offer help.

A cat is able to wander for miles, without worry

She goes from one end of the neighborhood to the other

becoming something, by doing it quietly

A conversation is us trying to convince ourselves that we have changed

it’s like a two-week diet, that ends with two pizzas, and

no change at all.

It can be difficult to keep a secret, unless

there is no desire to talk about it.

That—

is something special.

The cat kills for survival

and for her amusement

because her nature demands it.

Your nature requires solitude to understand it

Sometimes, it takes decades

and certain sure, what you do, becomes you

If you want to be something, you have to do it

in secret, like a vice

that you don’t want anyone to know about.

The cat is least herself, on the lap, of a human being

and most herself, in the tall grass, where she is a tiger

preparing to kill.