NaPoWriMo – Jennifer's Journal

It’s a Feline Thing

Published on April 18, 2013January 17, 2016 by J. Kelland Perry26 Comments

I am a cat.

I am quiet, domesticated
yet fiercely independent.

I pad silently about my domain
at an easy, unhurried pace.
I seem harmless, affectionate
even submissive as I bask
in a warm patch of sunlight.

When ego dictates
I mingle happily among people,
eager, impatient, hungry for attention.
Yet most of the time
I am too proud, too aloof to be touched.

I enjoy when they stroke my sleekness,
pamper me, spoil me as I purr
but my preference for solitude
always wins out.
I like to belong, feel secure in the love of others
and yet will be owned by no one.

And if anyone or anything threatens
my well-being?

A startling transformation will occur.
This quietly domestic, submissive little creature
will turn feral,
will arch, spit, scratch
to defend what she cares about,
with no thought of consequence.
The havoc I wreak
when talons are drawn and teeth are bared
you will not soon forget.
And somehow, no matter how hard the fight or
how far the fall, I land on my feet.
I am a survivor.Maybe it’s true.
A cat really does have nine lives.

Do you think you have a cat personality?
Or is there another animal you identify with?

Cat Talk (erikhare.wordpress.com
Cat people are more distinctive than dog people (psychologytoday.com)
Cat Survives Being Buried Alive (fox8.com)
Cat Stuck in Bumper Survives Car Wash and Drive (autoevolution.com)

Yellow

Published on April 11, 2013August 23, 2014 by J. Kelland Perry25 Comments

Weekly Photo Challenge: Colour

The yellowness of Springtime
is a warm and golden feeling,
a newness, a reawakening
of my memories as a child

I recall the dandelions,
buttercups in yellow brilliance,
and reflections in church windows
of an Easter morning sun

The yellowness of Springtime
shimmered in my golden ringlets
in our bonnets, in our laughter
colouring those carefree days

It is these things I remember
as I welcome the arrival
of a season sweetly smelling
of a million blooming things.

The yellowness of Springtime
is the warmth that lives again.

Battered

Published on April 4, 2013August 3, 2018 by J. Kelland Perry40 Comments

If I have a choice, what do I choose
do I escape this place, do I run away
as far as no one can find me?
I have been struggling,
can’t settle down –
the cuts are deep. I try to heal
but it is hard to heal a hurt
deeper than the ocean.
I try but none of this is easy,
not as easy as bleeding words
angry, messed up,
stillborn on a white page.
How I feel nobody knows;
no one understands what
I have lived. Sometimes I hope
for a deep sleep and never
never wake up,
a kind of running away
from a sour reality.
But somehow I endure
suppress the hurts
pretend nothing is wrong.
Easy to say, isn’t it?
I cannot cry. I turn my face away
when he comes in,
hide the tears, hide the pain –
I’m afraid
they will inflame and
invite his fist again.