THIS THANKSGIVING
This Thanksgiving my husband and I went to Atlanta
to spend Thursday through Sunday
with his very caring daughter
Jim and I had gotten up at 3:20 a.m. and were
at the airport by 5
My new husband ( not so different
from my other husband so many decades ago)
likes to be prompt so being really early
is not a problem for me
My husband had a free companion ticket for me
and things were good on the plane
At the airport my husband stopped to buy
his usual lottery ticket
while his daughter patiently waited
When we got to her house, the turkey was
still baking
Her son, her husband ,and my husband watched
one of the football games on tv
When dinner was ready, I mentioned an old tradition
from my family from years ago of going around the table
and everyone saying something
each one was grateful for
Instead they said grace and crossed themselves and
said they were grateful for the food
I said Amen with them
I didn’t cross myself since
I’m Jewish and my husband who converted
to Judaism when he married his second wife
didn’t cross himself either
I thought how my son’s children were spending
Thanksgiving with their mother and abuela
whom they had lived with since their parents
split when they were in kindergarten and
third grade
I thought of my older son and his children who
spend every Thanksgiving with their
other grandmother, my daughter in law’s mother
I thought about my younger son alone on Thanksgiving
and wondered if any of my grandchildren would phone or
email me today unlike last Thanksgiving
During dinner, we said how delicious the sausage
stuffing was that my step daughter’s husband had made
from a family recipe
We spoke how good the squash souffle’ my step daughter had made
We commented on how much their fourteen year old son
had grown since our last visit
I thought how happy my husband seemed to be with his
daughter and her family
And I thought to myself I should be grateful for this and
that my own grandchildren are having a traditional
Thanksgiving with at least one of their grandparents
And I love my grandchildren so much that just knowing they
are happy is more than enough
FOUND CAT
The coldest day in February
I hear a mewing on our shared walkway
A cat leaps up the steps still mewing
and rubs its body against my legs
Black, blackest with startling green
eyes and bones sticking out of its
famished body
I am not a “cat person “
I am a “dog person”
I am allergic to cats which
may be why I’m a “dog person”
Still, I give the cat some of my dog’s food outside
My husband tells me this is a mistake
that I’ll never get rid of the cat
The cat sleeps on our doormat
Again, I feed it outside
The next day I bring it inside
worried about roundworm it might have because
of a bare circle around its tail
But I’m more worried the cat will freeze or starve to death
I call the police in three neighboring towns
but no one has reported a lost pet
I put up signs Found Cat and my phone number
in my neighborhood
No one calls
This affectionate cat is obviously
an abandoned cat
I buy a litter box it immediately uses
I get advice from a friend who
used to rescue cats before she got sick
I take the cat to our dog’s vet
She does not have round worm but gets tested for other diseases
I get her rabies shots and all the other necessary shots and vaccines
I find out she is a he
and a year and a half old
with no identity chip
The vet says he’s very friendly
and sweet ( which I know)
The vet tells me the cat is extremely underweight
He does not have round worm
He is not cat hiv positive
After the test results, they phone
and tell me he has an infectious disease
and needs medication for three weeks to clear it up
and I need to give that medicine
to my fourteen year old Bichon as well
I worry the cat will scratch
our dog’s spindle tumor
and have covers put on the cat’s claws
I’ve called Saint Hubert’s
but they say they’re filled
and aren’t taking cats now
I call two animal control places
but they can’t promise me
the cat won’t be euthanized
I feed the cat baby food chicken
and baby rice cereal for his diarrhea
The cat sleeps on my placemat
on the dining room table.
He loves me to pet him
under his chin and behind his ears.
He is ravenous and constantly mews for food
and jumps on the kitchen counter
if I go into the kitchen to try to prepare even breakfast
My husband, Bichon Nelly and I lock ourselves
in the bedroom at night
because of my cat allergies
The cat roams the rest of the apartment
I feed Nelly on the bed
so the cat won’t eat her food.
At night the cat sometimes runs
down to the basement
where I keep his food and litter box
He runs up and sleeps on my placemat
or outside our closed bedroom door
or just roams the tiny apartment
while we stay locked in our bedroom
In the middle of the night the cat starts mewing
and doesn’t stop until I come out
take him on my lap and pet him
He mews and I give him more food—
The cortisone shot in my knee is wearing off
and I’m having trouble
bringing his food to the basement
as well as cleaning his litter box three times a day
The cat is now on cat food and I take him back
to the vet once he’s off the medicine for three weeks
The cat in four weeks has gone
from 5 pounds 1 ounce to 9 pounds 6 ounces
He is no longer underweight
The cat is ready to be neutered
I have spent my monthly free lance
earnings on this cat
No one seems to want him at this moment
though I notice my husband seems fonder of him each day
as do I through my sneezes and itchy face
WHERE I GO FROM HERE
Where I go from here
is not going to be too far
since I just celebrated a
birthday whose number says almost over
Where I go from here is maybe backward
trying to find old friends who have disappeared,
old third cousins, old classmates
who on my forward moving years
years ago( and probably theirs too) lost touch
I wonder if they’re ok, if they’re still alive
It’s odd this having fewer years ahead
where once the future spread
out like a long glowing road with
no near end—
Where once there were so many divergent paths
with no near end—
Where once there were so many divergent paths
I could have taken and sometimes did
Where once I stopped for years
and focused on my kids— their future lives
where they were going
I guess I’ll just try to call some old friends—
but with cell phones, no directory listings for
them anymore—
I’ll hope their minds are still alert—
that they have avoided the Alzheimer’s epidemic
in our age group—
That they might say— I was thinking about you too
And maybe sooner not later , I’ll pack up my journals
so my grown kids and grandchildren so busy
(and I’m glad they are )with their own lives
might one day after I’m gone
pick up one of these journals
and discover who their mother and grandmother really was
About the poet:
photo credit: bonbon robinson
Laura Boss is a first prize winner of PSA’s Gordon Barber Poetry Contest. She is a recipient of three NJSCA Fellowships. Founder and Editor of Lips, recent books include Arms: New and Selected Poems; Flashlight (both Guernica Editions); and The Best Lover (NYQ). A Dodge Poet, her poems have appeared in The New York Times.
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