Tom Waits With My Cat

“Without music, life would be a mistake.”

Nietzsche was right on the money

with that one

and even my cats would

have to agree with him

as they curl up at my feet

during the ballads

and they stomp around

to the marches I play

when I am in a great mood

my records pile up high

on the settle here

and the one cat

…my favorite

P.P.

likes to lay on the very top row

and watch the going on's of his

brothers and sisters and his four human owners

I have some Tom Waits

playing right now

and P.P. would like a drink

..maybe a scotch on the rocks

with a tuna head sliced in half

and hanging from the glass

Lord knows

that a drink

calls my name as well

and I grab a old bottle of brandy

from the shelf and

I pour myself a large glass

with the full knowledge

that this would worry my

beloved mother

(Don’t sweat it Rosie…I know what I’m doing)

and so

here at the desk

with my slippered feet

up

I crash into the tunes

and drink slowly

…sipping with the grace of thirteen kings

P.P.

I love you

but I dig the music a bit more

and Friedrich,

you were on the money

as you almost always were

and I think of you tonight

as my cats adore me

for playing their favorite composer

and your moustache was something ever splendid,

it is something I dream of combing

when my OCD acts up

but

tonight

this poem is for P.P. and Tom

my two buddies

with the brandy doing its job

as the saxophones play like

a chorus of vibrating razors.

and watch me now

I rise to the music and dance a proud mans jig

as the sun sets behind the tree’s

and the bottle is nearing

empty

but the tunes

continue on

and they always will