many hundreds of miles away with cats
(starting at the window)


fall crept in
as if it hadn’t fallen
really
not quite yet
or
it was mischief as from sprites
or maybe the mischief Lads
of
Yule
come down from Icelandic mountains
‘round this
time of year

with the ogress their mother
and sometimes
accompanied by the great black
Yule Cat
of which there is an enormous rendering
in Reykjavik

times the size of us

looking like an omen
in and of
itself
simply beheld

I mean many times the size of us
and warnings of great fire
for eyes

and all these beings
seem
to play a role like Krampus
in the watching
and the punishing of waywardness
though I’m not
sure
the audience for moralizing
children only
or
adolescents
full-on adults
and
might the creatures go to halls o
government as if one
year’s chastising
should be
enough

well
anyway
it’s blue and gray today
not
so far from Gettysburg
and with our own local versions
of
folklore

for seasons
and for planting and for harvest
for
correction though somewhere there should
be
tales of mercy
and good
humoe
don’t you think

and by the way
Icelanders have a true society for taking
care of
cats

The Cats of Reykjavik
friends gave me
a mug
because evidently people care
for cats
at home or should they wonder
elsewhere
be
actively looked after
not as
communal property rather
as
communal treasure

fear of the legends maybe
though
I don’t think so
except
well
there are stories and there
are
stories with one of the true ones
about cats
on board ships and how they kept the plague
away
by hunting rats that carried fleas
that in turn
carried plague

and
Europe would have done
so much better had they not killed cats
as
signs of witchcraft
which brings on two subjects of doubt
that grown-up people
even medieval Christians
say
should have known not
to have excused themselves
for all the local violence that had
the affecting
of wrecking health
and taking so very many
many
lives

and so for this and other real matters
the Icelandic
are
under aegis to be cared for
which
not I think on it
emphasizes civility
in
how we should be civilized
beyond dissolute
even
depraved
resolute


c l couch


(19 December, third week of Advent, fifth day into fifth night of Hanukkah, and there are planned traditional observations—with the solstice in the after the day after this one, whether planned by us or arriving anyway)

I typed “keept” at first for “kept” and rather liking “keept”; and, let me see, I haven’t slept (sleept?) since the night before this last one, and even then briefly (still breathing foul air); and I have a hangnail, which of course is bearable except there is a bandage on it, making typing more of a challenge than is usual—and this is enough if not excessively an apology


photo by Wietse Jongsma on Unsplash
Hallgrímskirkja
Reykjavík, Iceland