A Studious Cat

At the end of a grinding subway ride,

Scheduled readings like a tsunami tide,

And lectures and strivings and laptop bag

Made spirit and shoulders alike to sag;

Unlocked the door: sat you there on the floor

With a heart that hummed and eyes that implore,

And the strains that upon my mind did gnaw

Were melted away in your beaming awe.

*

No matter how high was the textbook stack,

Not patience nor passion you ever lacked;

Genius co-writer who had no thumbs,

Claiming the keyboard with your floofy tum.

*

The hard-won degrees in their frames do stay,

Though one doubts the meaning of what they say.

I sigh to recall all the twists and turns

And wonder what lessons there were to learn.

In a far-off land on a rain-soaked night,
I sit and I think by a candle’s light

Of the fortune to know your angel’s spark

That glowed beside me through the cold and dark.