Which Was the Love of Your Life?
Must there be one answer? Only one?
Right now I’m learning to love
a neat brown girl with bold eyes,
who makes loud, insistent demands
yet gives affection wholeheartedly,
climbing into my arms to rest her head
over my heart, purring. Who constantly
shows me she trusts me. And that she has
her own way of doing things, thanks.
This, perhaps, will be one of those
easy, happy loves. I’ve had them before.
Indeed, I’d much rather do without
suffering. (Though I think that’s
eventually, always the price of love –
and I’m willing to pay, when I must.)
My last love was very intense.
God, but she was beautiful! Black
with sleek white whiskers, elegant.
And smart! When other communications
failed, she spoke me mind-to-mind.
(Only my first was equally clever, but
in different ways. Well of course,
they’re all different, that’s my point.)
But she died, my last, while still
not really old. Already sick when she
came into my life, though neither of us
knew it then. We got off to a bad start.
Mutual trust was gradual, slowly earned.
By the time she left me, we were utterly
all in all to each other, no doubts,
nothing held back. Yes, it broke my heart.
So was she the dearest? One could well
think that. Only, there was my first.
Long gone, ever remembered.
We had many years together, knew
each other deeply. She was daughter,
sister, mother to me. She was friend,
ally, equal, closer than a lover. No-one
had a brighter brain, a wiser courage.
She chose my husband by signifying
her approval, helped me care for my kids.
She was stalwart. She was devotion.
She even knew how to joke.
There were others. Several. Some
I recall with tears for early loss.
Others with swellings of admiration,
pleasure, undying affection (though
they all died, late or early) and
always gratitude. Who am I,
that such love has entered my life
so often, so well? If I don’t list all,
it’s only because this is a poem,
not a full-length autobiography.
The small girl calls me now
with her low-pitched, insistent yell,
summoning me for morning cuddles.
‘In MY room today,’ she tells me.
(All cats who’ve lived in this house
claim the spare bedroom as theirs.)
‘Of course, darling,’ I say.
I lean back on big cushions. She presses
herself to my chest and purrs. I fondle
her throat, stroke behind her ears. After
a time, she washes her paws: leisurely,
deliberately, still sprawled across me.
I bury my head in her neck. ‘This,’
I declare, ‘is the present love of my life.’
Prompt 24 for April 2021 at Poetic Asides: A question poem.
Sharing on 3 October 2021 in Writers' Pantry #90 at Poets and Storytellers United.
Not a pet person. I am always amazed my wonderful pet stories. Growing up in my parent's house, there were always dogs. I remember one in particular which i named Shane was very attentive. I never cared for pets as an adult
ReplyDeleteHappy Sunday. Thanks for dropping by my blog
Much💜love
It was the opposite for me. I grew up without pets as my little brother was asthmatic and my mother was afraid furry critters would exacerbate it. So of course, as soon as I grew up and was a free agent, and particularly after I became a parent, I always had at least one cat, and often one or two dogs as well.
DeleteOh ,so beautiful. Love always is....in present tense
ReplyDeleteThank you; nicely said. I absolutely concur.
DeleteThis brought a smile and not a few tears to my eye. I adore my sweet homebody and cuddle buddy Kit. And I also love my feisty and adventurous first corgi, Faye. Love makes room when needed.
ReplyDeleteCats are on this planet for a reason. to keep us company, and to demand love. :)
ReplyDeleteExactly – so that the love within us has an ever-present tangible outlet.
DeleteOur loves seem to change over the years, whether we wish it were so, or not.
ReplyDeleteWell, the trouble with our pets is that we usually outlive them. But then, it turns out we can find room in our hearts for new ones.
DeleteI've had five dogs, and one in particular was a truest friend. Miss her everyday.
ReplyDeleteI've had more cats than dogs, but have had some excellent dogs too. Although I am primarily a cat-lover, if I had to pick a favourite animal companion, one particular dog would be it. He was such a great being! *Sigh.* But I miss them all.
DeleteYour affection for your cats is almost palpable, Rosemary. While we have two cats who allow us to live with them and I have an affectiion for each, it falls far short of your affection for your present companion. I am happy for you ... and for your sweet Kit.
ReplyDeleteI live alone (when it comes to other humans, anyway) and although I have wonderful human friends, my immediate family members are far away geographically. So I need this little cat. As she needs me.
DeletePS Kit is Rommy's pet – and is a dog! But you probably meant my kitty (smile).
DeleteLove the one your with? This is a beautiful glimpse into love, reminds me of my friend who also loves cats. I don't have this connection with cats and this gives me some heartful insight.
ReplyDeleteLuckily for me, the one I am with is very smoochy, very tactile, and very good-natured – easy to love.
DeleteI am sure you have love for some other kind of living being (besides people) – dogs, trees, a mountain or river, the plants in your garden?
Pets, especially cats and dogs surely do worm their way into our hearts. Unconditional love!
ReplyDeleteYes, they are great teachers of that! We are so lucky to have them.
DeleteYou and all your loves are so very lucky. Few things are as precious as having many loves in life and understanding that every single one of them is the love of our lives when they are. This is such a delightful poem to read.
ReplyDeleteI have indeed been greatly blessed!
DeleteCats are wonderful and aesthetically beautiful.They are intelligent sensitive and empathetic creatures who respond accordingly to special humans who love and understand them.
ReplyDeleteThat comment very much identifies you as one who loves and understands them, Rall!
DeleteMy youngest and his dear have three cats but I'm more of a dog person. They told me one cat is not fond of people while I'm scratching behind his ears. I guess that makes me an unperson (with apologies to Orwell)
ReplyDeleteA faithful companion is a wonderful magic and I'm glad you found another.
Perhaps not so much an unperson as a special person. Approval from a cat, particularly one who dislikes most people, is a great honour.
DeleteI'll take the honor but I also find it humorous. The other two are afraid of new people but yet came up to sniff my hand but no petting - yet.
DeleteThe young lady keeps asking why they "like" me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I have had cats my whole life and my favorite breed is the Maine coon. So loving and social. I adore adore my three Irishdoodle dogs - they can do no wrong even when they are "bad". ha I am glad you have you cat.
ReplyDeleteI haven’t met any Maine coons in person. Poppi is Burmese, my first, and is everything I had heard about them — very sweet-natured, and in some ways more like a dog (less self-sufficient, not so much ‘the cat who walks alone’).
DeleteThis is one of the BEST poems I've ever read about pet love or love shared between humans and pets. It's a beautiful poem in every way, even though not a cat lover but dog lover rather, I appreciate the special bond and love you present here. It's heartwarming!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Khaya. One might also extrapolate to the many people one loves in a lifetimes, not only romantic partners but friends, family....
DeleteNot fair to have pet favorites, Rosemary. It makes the others jealous.
ReplyDeleteOr worried. :)
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Margaret, I tried to leave this comment below on your Pantry admin page but Blogger wouldn't let me. My first here was a test to see if Blogger had locked me out entirely, it worked here
ReplyDeleteBTW, we have seen pet jealousy amongst the ranks. I was halfway trying to be tongue-in-cheek on that one.
Here goes what I have been trying to post:
When posed with this question, why one writes, I thought for a loooong moment as my days as an Operation Controller having console we manned at the Mission Control Center at NASA Houston during a space flight in progress. Those times we had to write a Mission Report every morning as to what had happened since our last report the day before.
Our "wry" boss would walk through the area where the various controllers were writing, and moan, "Write faster, write faster." I think he was not serious but wanted to relieve some stress, but we didn't dare laugh at such a stupid request. We had to write for him and his superiors.
That was writing for someone to read and though I love writing and the community I would not enjoy it nearly so much if no one were reading what I write. I am about to change my Friday blog because there are not enough readers, as counted by comments left. Our group, meme in nature, not poetry is dwindling.
But HERE, I am also writing for family and friends who keep track of me to some extent. Some of those are children, grandchildren etc., some are relatives as in cousins and closer yet, and still another group, our church Bible Class of now 152 mixed couples. These groups are not suitable for me to write anything very risqué, I can push some limits once in a while.
A further group is members from other writing groups, either still there, gone to Face Book, or just stopped writing themselves.
All this really adds up to I MAINLY WRITE FOR OTHERS TO READ. I try to write what they would like, I cannot please the whole world. And the group I write for can not be too large as I cannot possible keep up with all the comments. An example would be the SIX WORD SATURDAY group, I would sometime hit over 50 reader comments to answer on their blogs. For time reasons, I hardly ever post answers to comments left on my blog. I may come to theirs, but if for felt reader needs I would answer their questions on my own blog as well.
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Jim, all my previous pets are now in cat and dog heaven. When I canoodle with Poppi, I tell her she is the bestest cat in the whole wide world, or the smartest and prettiest one alive – so even if they are listening in spirit they need not feel jealous.
ReplyDeleteI think the rets of this comment is meant for Magaly and autocorect has supplied Margaret's name. I will copy it and paste into the Pantry comments with a covering note that it's from you, as it might get missed here.
PS I have replid to your comment over there, too. As no doubt Magaly will also.
DeletePets are stress relievers. Of course, the love we remit to them will be remittd back. Nice post.
ReplyDeleteYou're so right about pets. And glad you liked the post.
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