A poem
She is a calico map of scars,
her patchwork fur a tale of stories untold.
One eye shines a defiant emerald,
the other just an echoing socket.
Her ears carry faint scarlet notches,
hard-won tokens of battles survived.
She bullies the dogs with a throaty growl,
daring them to challenge her majesty.
At night, she curls
into a crescent on my pillow,
her one-eyed glare pinning me
with the weight of the worlds she has witnessed.
In the daylight, a diva sunbathing,
she flashes glimpses of her blushed belly,
a poem of vulnerability and valor,
declaring to the gods her refusal
to be anything less
than gloriously herself.
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