Franks Psychiatry 5 #65: Furball and Freddie

Furball the tabby cat
is a calamity
of sorts

 

add up his losses and you get
just about half of a cat

 

the tail is gone
an ear
the eye on the left
is quite blind

 

but he’s been
part of the institution
for years
and every so often
one of the staff
gets him trimmed up
and shaved

 

a slender peculiarity
that merges
into an over-sized head
like an Egyptian sphinx

 

quite alarming
to the uninitiated

 

Furball's day
is in and out of the residential units
and stalking birds
generally smaller
than the black and white ibis
that reside in the yard

 

it’s not a bad life
when it’s all said and done

 

~

 

Freddie was Romanian
once
way back when

 

migrated his aspirations
to the mental asylum
of a very small town
in Australia
and grew old there

 

sometimes he cries
inconsolable
just like a baby
aloud
in torn-up Romanian
or nonsense
maybe he’s not even using
the words he was born with
just voicing an anguish
only he feels

 

in the bedroom
his personal touch is the skeleton
of a piano accordion

 

the bellows are ghosts
and the buttons have sagged
deep into the frame
a long time ago
leaving just the holes
as suggestions

 

but it’s there
and it’s his
and maybe it brings back
the polka

 

da-dat-da da-dat-da da-dat-da
da-da-daddle-da-dat-da

 

except for what’s in his head
he’s a loner
but I couldn’t tell you
what might be happening there

 

~

 

tonight
on the medication round
I surprised him
already in bed
and I couldn’t help notice
that Freddie does not
sleep alone

 

before rising to face me
he tucked in and settled Furball
the cat with no ear
with no eye
lacking tail

 

medicine down
the two snuggled up
with a purr
in Romanian
as I turned the light out

 

I’m sure it was meant as

 

goodnight

 

~