Struggling to be good,
I've lived my life tracing cracks
and inspecting the salty scents
of damage. I struggle not to
mourn myself and my mangled ideologies,
I walk light-footed on the rooftops
like a cat in the dark.
.
I can see the view from the second floor.
The old and young passing back and forth
through alleyways like so many nervous mice.
I fight my instincts -- I meow, and carry on.
.
I've lived my concrete life
struggling to be good. Beasts
see through my eyes when it rains
and I look into a puddle to lap from it.
Sometimes I love to nuzzle,
and sometimes I resent the human hands
that force me under and make me a pet.
.
I am the short period of time before midnight,
the hot flashes in the dark, between the ranges
of streetlights that cannot protect you forever.
I struggle not to pounce, I struggle to stay still and be stroked.
There's no room for broken glass wherever I walk --
anything that is wounded I turn into meat, but still,
I struggle to nuzzle, lap and purr.
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Canary word: Present
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125,029 Literary Works • 672,774 Reviews
I feel like I've seen this title somewhere before... But other than that, I really enjoyed reading this poem and I hope you enjoyed writing it.
The structure of this poem, the topic, and the overall finish of it were all incredible. How long did it take you to write this? What inspired you to write it in the first place?
Thanks for reviewing! I'm curious - what did the title remind you of? I sort of came up with it on the fly after writing the body of the poem~ The draft took me about fifteen minutes I think, with some editing afterwards and I was inspired by the idea of morality in Western philosophy, especially something I learnt about Hobbesian philosophy in class.
Your welcome! You deserve all the credit you can get! I remember seeing something similar on YouTube one day, I'm not sure where that video is now. It was something funny, like- "If cats can be in- then why can't they be presidant?" Or something like that... I didn't watch that video, kinda just laughed at it then scrolled. \('~')/
Ah, I see! That's neat - I guess the Internet really does belong to cats, huh?
Including the poetry~
I love cats, but that aside, I greatly enjoyed this poem. The narrator is struggling between two different approaches to morality. He both wants to do whatever seems good and appealing in the moment, and long-term strategic and "good" self control. As good as good is, he has to fight to resist his instincts.
The narrator's oppressors (for that is how they are apparently viewed) seem to have the same struggle, sometimes taking advantage of the narrator, sometimes being perfectly fine human beings. Although that begs the question: is the narrator really a cat? I'd say not, but you never know.
Altogether I think this is an amazing poem of self-control, and has a certain appeal due to the not-quite-human narration, which softens the impact slightly, but also gives way to new levels of interpretation.
Thanks for the review, Ichthys! I enjoyed reading your interpretations, especially on the two approaches to morality. I hadn't thought so much about the human figures depicted in the poem, so seeing your thoughts on that definitely helped.