CAT IN THE TREE Meow! Meow! The black cat wakes me up in the morning from my dream of night when I open the window blinds, his eyes dart forth like arrows from another world. Old mouse asked "Who's to bell the cat?"— Cat that in the corner dwells. Where is the Cat with nine lives with seven kits going to St. Ives? Artists cat-lovers— Renoir, Dali, Warhol, Steinlen, Carrington, and Peter Milton. Cat-loving writers: Colette, Cocteau, Dr. Seuss and Edgar Allan Poe. Black cats perform spells for witches, Cat's Eye stones make wearers invisible. Bast the moon goddess is cat-headed, Freyja's chariot is drawn by cats. After seeing Egyptian cat statues in the British Museum, James Joyce said the ancients had more religious awe than Christians who had no cats in their Bible. I'm seeing cats everywhere— on sidewalk chalk drawings, in shape of cirrus clouds, on the wall of a student's art exhibit, and on the Stanford computer I log on! Is Schroedinger's cat dead or alive? If Josshu was there, he would have lived. Ask the Cheshire Cat who confounded Alice with his Zen-like questions and before she could answer them he vanished into the tree with nothing left except for his grin. Am I now in with a mad cat? Look at those eyes— not just a house cat but the stare of a panther whose darkness swallows me whole into some stargate— the window opens— O, I see and see!           — Peter Y. Chou               Mountain View, 6-18-2011

Cat in the Tree— Image of cat eyes in eucalyptus tree from my apartment window in Mountain View