Imitation 5 By Natalie Frenette

Chez Jane

BY FRANK O'HARA

The white chocolate jar full of petals

swills odds and ends around in a dizzying eye  

of four o’clocks now and to come. The tiger,  

marvellously striped and irritable, leaps  

on the table and without disturbing a hair  

of the flowers’ breathless attention, pisses  

into the pot, right down its delicate spout.

A whisper of steam goes up from that porcelain  

urethra. “Saint-Saëns!” it seems to be whispering,  

curling unerringly around the furry nuts  

of the terrible puss, who is mentally flexing.  

Ah be with me always, spirit of noisy  

contemplation in the studio, the Garden  

of Zoos, the eternally fixed afternoons!  

There, while music scratches its scrofulous  

stomach, the brute beast emerges and stands,  

clear and careful, knowing always the exact peril  

at this moment caressing his fangs with  

a tongue given wholly to luxurious usages;  

which only a moment before dropped aspirin  

in this sunset of roses, and now throws a chair  

in the air to aggravate the truly menacing.

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Imitation 5

Dumb Cat

By Natalie Frenette

They swim around in circles all day long.

I can’t tell if it’s with purpose or not.

They’re so innocent just swimming in there.

But then suddenly they dart a sharp right.

A predator emerges from the dark.

Slowly approaching the tank without fear.

Masquerading around the glass with ease.

As if he’s warming them up to their death.

The ruthless beast simply has no feelings.

No sympathy for poor creatures like them.

With one swipe of a claw he catches one.

Ripping the flesh from bone to eat with ease.

The other ones didn’t seem to notice.

Just swimming in circles and darting some.

They didn’t even know that they were next.

The beast just acts like he runs this whole show.

So clearly there was nothing I could do.

Just helplessly watch from a far distance.

He finished them off and pounced off the desk.

Then licked his paws clean as if to hide it.

When mom gets home she’ll be so furious.

She’ll smack him with a newspaper and yell.

Then he’ll just meow and moan like he didn’t

Even know what in the world he did wrong.

But I knew, I would always remember.

He ate my friends, the ones I really liked.

Unlike him, my dumb older sister’s cat.

I’ll get a lid for my friends this next time.

And then set a trap for that stupid cat.

That’ll show him once and for all. Dumb cat.