Cricket and the Bird Window (Zuihitsu poem)

A new prompt at dVerse Poets is of a poetry called Zuihitsu. The Prompt is here and explains with a number of fantastic examples.

Now whether I’m on the right track with the style of this I’m not really sure, I could be completely off base, but it seems to me that this one does have a bit of room for interpretation so …

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Cricket and the Bird Window

I’ve a blind cat named Cricket whose Meow sounds like a plaintive cry, a howl, a meowl if you will, as she stretches her neck upwards to throw it to some cat gods that only she knows though sometimes I think, or hope, that maybe it’s a cry for me, her constant in the darkness, and that is enough for me to mean something.

I opened a wintered window last night to today’s changing morning to shock me with light birds, happier ones, not slogging with heavy wings, heavy thoughts

No one mourns some passings

They danced me stories in their landings that seeped and steeped behind my eyes into the flickering space where they kept time with my lids and flapped rhythm into song

It’s nice to fly when you can and you wake before you can’t

You can learn lessons from the pained examples of excess and hubris heaped upon us, on our angry daily as I thought to open another window the next night but thought again, thought better, trying to put lessons to use

Cricket could feel the room move around her, change temperature with a cocked nose, under the bird window and she cried, not for me but for new air? For her cat gods? For birds?

Coming back from the grocery store I passed a nursery but couldn’t afford to stop to add anything new to life, just have to hope the hardy ones return and make do with old company

This morning beneath my lids again, in my safe flights, I told the birds not to worry of the cat under the window, she couldn’t see them, they said for me the same, not to worry, that maybe she was just crying for them in the fresh wind, and that that is enough for them to mean something

Cricket The Cat Poet – From Beyond the Lap (poem)

CRICKET’S CAT CONDO

A Cricket Blog

Blog Header:

Hi and welcome to the Condo, I’m Cricket of said blog title and I write of just my everyday cat here, sometimes funny, sometimes scratchfelt, sometimes angry where I meowl to the cat heavens like I’m at a cat funeral, thoughts on getting older and sometimes stuff that just needs to be buried in the box … like really buried, like spend some real quality catman-like time scratching and swiping and spinning and dancing small circles and dragging and burying them.

Mostly though I write about napping and eating and litter boxing and napping and eating and litter boxing some more and splashing water out of water bowls onto the pee pads underneath them because, well, I do that, a lot. Hey, every cat’s got “a thing” right? Sometimes, I even feel a little poetic like that guy of mine and through osmosis, or lapmosis, I have come to write some pieces of my own.  

I am blind too, just to let you know, though there was a time many cat lives ago where I wasn’t but I don’t let that hinder me from my catversing keyboard scribbling/stepping as I write in a stream of cat free step style. I am mostly deaf as well though that does help to not hear the things no one wants to hear from the world these days and to temper the reactions from aforementioned guy who I surely annoy with my water bowling and his constant need changing of pee pads and the stepping across a face with wet paws in the middle of the night.

If you’re joining me here, I thank you but just mind your feet for me and that other one, Bella (I love her, but she only just bears with me I think) and for my guy (he can be quite adept at dancing after years of cat my counterclockwise circles underfoot practice so don’t you worry). And don’t step on his face with those wet paws in the middle of that night by the way, that’s mine, ’cause then I might just have to startle the cat poop out of you with an unexpected meowl right in your left ear.

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Latest prompt at the dCats Sitting Fence website was to write of something that just struck you, in the moment, something in the stream of cat free step style, right in my Cricket wheelhouse I thought, though, as I think about it some more, that’s pretty much every prompt at dCats Sitting Fence “something that struck you right in the moment” … the occasional write about your love/hate with a stuffed mouse or about things that only the cat saw from the end of the bed or banished to the nightstand sure, or bouncing plastic bell balls but, no, mostly that immediate stream of cat free step.

So my latest then in the Condo with an assist from my guy.

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From Beyond the Lap

The often too many friends in my head said112222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222220222222222222222222222222222222222222222’;[




    Vnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkwe know

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7 thoughts on “From Beyond the Lap”

Catty McCatterson says:

September 18, 2025

You know, what you did there Cricket, with the couple of 1’s followed by the 2’s really hit home. Such a lovely thought that you are your 1’s 2.

Powers says:

September 18, 2025

Hold on … (cough cough choke cough … spit) … sorry, someone REALLY needs to vacuum this f’in place … Wow, that space there Cricket, in the middle? I have no idea what it means. Deep.

Ms Cat says:

September 18, 2025

I love the line “Vnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkmkwe know”

Yeah, we know.

Pixie says:

September 18, 2025

How cute am I? Oh, and great cat poem.

Martin says:

September 19, 2025

Well done Cricket!! But, and I hope I’m not being insensitive here, but how do you find the litter box? I’m guessing it’s all through an overly sensitive sense of smell but well, and I know me, the whole house knows me, I have issues there, I hear the screams, “Dammit Martin!”, is it ever too overwhelming?

Stock Image

September 19, 2025

I know it’s a pretty bad name though AI finds it cool but doesn’t understand what it is that you wrote. I think you may have broken it.

Tish

September 19, 2025

You know Cricket I was breaking this down and at first I thought this just might be nonsense but then I looked further and? It is still nonsense, cat nonsense. Nicely done. Though who is MKM or KMK? I have a catcast, “Tish Cat, Dishes”, would love for you to join in and talk to us about it!