{Dear old Omar's health has deteriorated this past fortnight. He is now more skin than flesh.}
{But he is still happy and comfortable, warming his old bones.}
{And your comments and tweets and kind words have and do mean so very much. Thank-you.}
{Little bony haunches. Little skinny tail. The old man's still purring.}
A little peek at something new I am toying with (for In Your Dreams and with reference to a certain siamese cat).
Carrying with her the protective warmth of a day spent given over to work, she lies on the bed and waits for sleep with open eyes. She waits for the familiar smudges of furniture to emerge from the darkness of the room. At her side, a small cat burrows, trying to make a well between her waist, the crook of her elbow, and the mattress beneath. Clockwise, clockwise, round and round, the little frame of the Siamese cat, now more bone than flesh, slowly, awkwardly, rhythmically rotates in his search for sleep, but he cannot settle. At night, the long black cat that follows him by day cannot be seen, but is still felt: his long shadow, his time soon up. This nightly courtship, a dance performed as comfort sought, as constant as the stars.
The twisted bedclothes tell of the fitfulness of limbs extended and tucked in close only to be extended and tucked in once more, of pillows plumped and folded in half and stuffed under head. Left, supine, right, prone, comfort pursued and sometimes found, sometimes not. And now in crumple of linen and acceptance, she lies still listening to the sound of the cat’s purr and waits to feel his body go soft and yield to sleep. A little black nose near her own, minutes pass in stillness, sleep will come.
....
All of which, when viewed together, probably explains why links to posts such as 13 Reasons Bats Are Just Misunderstood Animals make me weepy, and I am grateful for your pre-orders of the second edition of A Catalogue of Bodies.
+ From a couple years ago, when Omar sported a fetching pink bandage
+ A precarious composition, from the cover of a new artists' book
+ Take a look at the visual effects from Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel (via It's Nice That)
+ Lest you missed them, my three written pieces for Fjord Review: Love is Blind, The Middle Room, Manon
+ A Zoological Atlas in detail, with a peakish Dodo (BibliOdyssey)
+ "At last the fox got home to its den...." (The Public Domain Review)
+ Great Forest National Park: A National Park for Victoria
+ And, always, the view lately, now, this very moment (with some time fudging, naturally)
