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Trusting the Senses

by Carol Hamilton


​My cat likes to sit on photos
or anything else paper
 that might draw
    my attention from her
She never notices another of her species
or even recognizes my face flattened out
    squared off from true space
       held tight in suspended animation

She gets excited about television birds
or a cat cry emitted from the speakers
         She leaps at herself thinking
    that one backed in silver
is her rival, almost a twin
perhaps friend of that wildcat I feed out back
 But the true disturbing thing
    that drives her crazy

 is my voice from the recording machine
    as she finds me sitting there
                  doppelgänger sound my magic
          my spirit set free
 of everything we hold true

Carol Hamilton has recent and upcoming publications in Pontiac Review, Sanskrit Literary-Arts Magazine, Poet Lore, Limestone, Louisiana Literature, Off The Coast, Palaver, San Pedro River Review, Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, Hubbub, Blue Unicorn, Abbey, Main Street Rag, Two Cities Review, Poem, Tipton Poetry Review, and others. She has published 17 books, most recently, Such Deaths from the Visual Arts Cooperative Press in Chicago. She is a former Poet Laureate of Oklahoma and has been nominated six times for a Pushcart Prize.