Today, I’ve been writing a poem about my cat.

I don’t usually focus on such things, but she’s a little darling with a dark streak – and so I felt inspired. Juno is the first cat I’ve owned, and it’s quite the experience. She is a bit like an extreme version of a human being – one minute demanding a rub and scratch (but with your eyes!!!), and the next acting aloof and frankly snobbish. I’ve never met such a playful creature – but the act of play with her is dangerous, like playing frisbee with a  samurai sword, or rugby with an overly large hand grenade. She combines such joy with the flailing of sharp claws and ever-sharpening teeth.

In the meantime – I had a few poems accepted for web journal Your One Phone Call, and a request from their sister-zine In Between Hangovers for a few poems for their site too. Being a happy poet, I complied, and they published the first one yesterday. You can read my little melancholic ditty ‘Aparted’ over on their website.

[Photo credit: Ch. Boirau, The Spleen (Melancholy). Postcard, c. 1915]