I see a cat at Pate Street 

follow it to the roof

up to the stars it leapt to

be as giant as the night 

I do not find her anywhere

but everywhere she’s gone to

and when I see her face again

I’ll call her like an old friend

I could have been happy 

but I left the candle burning

room for her to light the house

so that I would know whether 

or not she had come around

I asked the night to find a lighter

shade that wasn’t her,  

so Night had swallowed that

and told me how its stomach hurt 

I would have hung the stars on darkness

so they would hang me by 

the noose of my own construction 

I’m the captor and the fool  

I never listened

to the omniscient dark 

begging me to not lose something in it

a thief, who wants something back 

that was never mine–

just something that 

lived in my house for some time

who willed me to see 

that she was just a killer

that; pious, I sought out

and served up her dinner

she had always been slight 

and blacker than night

to trick me into believing

I saw you at Pate Street 

follow you to the roof

scratch me from the railing 

I will never find you

we don’t have to pretend 

there’s something you returned to 

when I saw your face again 

you only saw the end of you