It was getting near sunset this evening when I told Allen I was going to walk the trails in our field. He'd just taken the mower down there and they were fresh-cut. He decided to come along and so did the dogs.
About a third of the way down, we heard Uno, one of our cats wailing, trying to find us. We stopped and called to him and he came bounding to us through the weeds. He's just a beautiful black and white cat. He was just a kitten when we first moved here. We used to walk the field then, too, with his mother, an all black cat, and other strays that we adopted.
I picked Uno up and carried him, which is what he wanted. He frequently follows us to the mailbox for the same purpose. He will keep cutting in front of us until we give him a ride back to the house. He brother, Dozer, was like this, too.
Allen used to pick Dozer up and put him inside the hood of his jacket and carry him that way. Dozer has been dead a long time. He was killed out on our highway. So was their brother, Spotty. Uno and Stinky (his sister) are the only two left of a once-thriving family of cats.
The field is so beautiful right now. The white of the Queen Anne's lace has given way to yellows and purples. Once in a while, during our walk in the field, I'd have to shift Uno from one arm to another, as he's a pretty heavy cat. His claws would dig into me because he thought I was going to put him down. He didn't want that.
We were on the last leg of the trail when I looked down and saw something white, a skull. It was recently cracked, probably by the mower wheel. "What is it?" I asked Allen. But as soon as he turned it over, I knew.
"It's a cat," he said.
Two of ours had disappeared this summer.
Uno jumped from my arms and smelled the skull. Then he sat there next to it, looking. We started walking again but he stayed there. I turned frequently to look back at him. Each time I looked, I saw him sitting completely still, just looking the skull.
One of the cats that disappeared this summer was his mother.
I'm a University Lecturer in English and the author of a novel, The Secret of Hurricanes (MacAdam/Cage 2002). My life is summed up by Rumi, who said: "My story gets told in various ways: a romance, a dirty joke, a war, a vacancy." Rumi's quote is the epigraph to Hurricanes. The purpose of this journal is to explore creativity and the writing life.
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Saturday, September 26, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
New Website
Slowly...slowly...building...a...new...website...here http://theresawilliams.wordpress.com/
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Page a day: Ikkyu
Haiku #241

Seagulls fly over the Maumee
I took this photo with my old point and shoot camera. I wished I had my SLR with me because there was a moment when the scene was all birds, wing tip to wing tip. By the time the point and shoot got fired up, the most beautiful part of the show was over.
I took this photo with my old point and shoot camera. I wished I had my SLR with me because there was a moment when the scene was all birds, wing tip to wing tip. By the time the point and shoot got fired up, the most beautiful part of the show was over.
Late summer we ready
our boat on shore a crow laughs
at us from his tree
Friday, September 11, 2009
Sunday, September 06, 2009
Finished, or almost
Finished, or almost finished, an essay I was working on tonight. I'll let it set a few days and see. I know where I'd like to submit it; they aren't accepting new submissions until the 15th anyway, so there's time to spare.
Page a day: Ikkyu
Friday, September 04, 2009
Page a day: Ikkyu
Page a day: Ikkyu
I've been trying to read one page a day of Ikkyu's poems, but they so often stop me because I can't quit thinking about one before going to the next. I could only manage to read one tonight:
don't hesitate get laid that's wisdom
sitting around chanting what crap
don't hesitate get laid that's wisdom
sitting around chanting what crap