the kind of love affair which every respectable building must keep as a legend

[two-grey-rooms.livejournal.com]

"Why are we embarrassed by silence? What comfort do we find in all the noise?"
--Morrie, Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom



"The Mockingbird"

The mockingbird had been following the cat
all summer
mocking mocking mocking
teasing and cocksure;
the cat crawled under rockers on porches
tail flashing
and said something angry to the mockingbird
which I didn't understand.

Yesterday the cat walked calmly up the driveway
with the mockingbird alive in its mouth,
wings fanned, beautiful wings fanned and flopping,
feathers parted like a woman's legs,
and the bird was no longer mocking,
it was asking, it was praying
but the cat
striding down through centuries
would not listen.

I saw it crawl under a yellow car
with the bird
to bargain it to another place.

Summer was over.
--Charles Bukowski