Cats in My Fruit Salad

i see them, poised like sphinxes , outside our gate,
slinking soundlessly away as the car approaches.
on sunny mornings, one of them curls
on my orange armchair,
reluctant to leave as i plead:
please, i'd like to enjoy the sun, too,
& read the sunday papers.

with the nonchalance a high-wire artist
can never match, the creature rises languorously
& walks towards the edge of the road.

the world as we know it
may end covered by ice or melted by fire
while roaches take dominion over what's left of it.
or i can come undone, play russian roulette & break my head into cubist fragments.

but oh, in my brave new world
apples tumble in space,
strawberries expand to the size of benches,
mangoes turn from ripe yellow to sour green.

at this perplexing state of things the cats turn up
their noses & lick with their pink-pink tongues
my intact mound of chilled fruit salad.


--Babeth Lolarga

first published in Philippines Free Press, July 18, 2009
photos of paintings exhibited by the author in a solo show at Cafe by the Ruins in February 2009