POEM: Farm Kitten

Okay, this is an odd little poem that started out on the shower wall... Christmas two years ago my sister gave Jake a writing board for the shower. (About once a month he'd yell from the shower "Becca, Becca, Bring the paper & pencil!" 'cuz he always gets his best song ideas in the shower, and was regularly forgetting half the song before he'd be dried off and sitting with paper and a pen..) The board itself is the size of a regular sheet of paper, but the writing utensil works like a crayon, so the board got filled IMMEDIATELY. Now we all just use the crayon on the shower wall, so it's completely covered with the lyrics to one of Jake's songs and a scripture I memorized and a drawing for a display stand for our beading and who knows what else...

Jake started this poem one night about a year ago while giving Deborah a bath, and we all just sort of built on it. It's rough. It's bad (try writing poetry by committee), it's downright silly and non-sensical. For a long time now it's been on our shower wall with a sign reading FIX ME. You are welcome to add bits. My only request is read it out loud before suggesting it... the only reason it SORT OF works is 'cuz of the rhythm...

Once I met a kitten,
who lived on a farm.
He had paws, a tail and claws,
but all I had were arms.
I asked if I could borrow them,
thinking, “what’s the harm?”
“I catch my dinner with my claws,”
said the kitten from the farm.
“I balance on high rails
with my whippy tail.
My velvet black paws-
pad so quietly
through nooks, crannies, and crooks,
and help me climb up trees.”