A Lesson from Bob (a sequel)

A Big Life: Encouragement for People in the Arts – 

Bob is the alpha cat in my Seaside neighborhood.

He challenges racoons and other cats who like to use my yard as a sandbox.

There is less room now to leave their gifts of fertilizer because this year I dug up the back.

I planted new grass, flowers, rosemary, spearmint, peppermint, lettuce, and beans.

I grew things from seeds, a thing I have never done before in my life.

Except once with radishes when I was a child.

I think I now know what a mother must feel like.

Or maybe a father.

I am in love with the bumblebees.

 

I learned a lot about myself during this time of pandemic.

Most of all I learned I like being alone.

But Bob taught me lessons every step of the way.

 

Poop where you want and don’t let anyone else hog the bathroom.

Take the love the neighbors give you without running away.

Enjoy time alone when the patting on the back stops.

Know that I am the queen of my backyard.

Even when Bob is there, prince of the patio,

Confident the whole neighborhood is  his turf.

 

I feel lucky the white moths like to explore my weeds and sunflowers

And the surprise black-eyed Susans I thought wouldn’t come up!

But they did.

Elegant poppies so gorgeous I wonder if they are illicit

Like the love affair I’m having with myself during this evil plague.

 

Bob doesn’t worry and sometimes I shoo him from resting behind idling cars.

He’s the one cat in my neighborhood who is not afraid.

I have become like Bob.

I know the answer to no fear now.

The answer is that I have enough.

Treats in the fridge, friends on the phone,

Sun on my back.

 

 

I like being

With the crows and the seagulls

The children who chat me up on my deck from the sidewalk

Six feet away.

The garbage man, handy woman, bald eagle in the sky

The whale that I saw and the grey pelicans

The Dungeness crabs who rise from the water to see who I am

As I pass by

The fog and the moon and the shooting stars

And Bob.