cat's dish


my cat has a dish.

i know it should be a milk dish
but i can't afford to give my cat milk
so usually it's filled with water but
sometimes i forget and it's empty but
most of the time it's not.

once, i looked at the water and it was
dirty but the water really wasn't dirty
it was the dish and i told myself to remember
to wash it, but i forgot and besides
the cat drank it anyway.

last year i left the dish outside and it
got cold and the water turned into ice and
the cat couldn't drink it anymore so i had to
bring it in and thaw it out so the cat could drink
it but while it was thawing, i gave my cat some
milk to drink. it was christmas, you know.

i think my cat must really be thirsty
alot because he must drink alot of water
because i have to fill up his dish alot.
although maybe he spills it sometimes because
i caught him once with his paw still in
the dish and it was tipped over so almost
all of the water spilled out onto the floor,
and i didn't hit him or anything because everybody
makes mistakes.

but you know i think that sometimes that
water just mysteriously disappears and
somebody once told me all about how those
little molecules fly around and all that
stuff about about evaporation but i didn't
understand it all.

anyway, i got to thinking one day about
that water and i really don't know why i
did but alot of times i get these pretty
peculiar thoughts and i always try to write
them down. one time my brother caught
me writing them down and he read them
and he said i was crazy. i don't know.
maybe i am. my mom never told me i was
because she just always said you know
i love you.

anyway, i though about that water alot
and how much that water was just like
people.

you know how water always takes
the shape of whatever you pour it in
and if you pour it in something with
holes in it the water just runs out?
well that's like alot of people who've
been poured into the world and they
just kind of fill it up in whatever
shape it's in.

and you know how sometimes water gets
dirty like the water in my cat's dish?
well alot of people are dirty like that
because i read about them in the paper and
i hear about them on tv but i think maybe
they aren't really dirty it's just the dish
they're in.

and you know how sometimes water turns
into ice because it's frozen?
i know alot of people are walking around
that are like that. they're frozen and the funny
thing is, they don't even know it and they
don't seem to care too much.

and you remember how i caught my cat
spilling his water?
well sometimes i wish that if
the whole world were a dish and all
the people were the water, well, i wish
something would come by and tip the dish
over and let all the water run out and then
wash the dish out and fill it back up
with new water or something.
sometimes i really feel like that.
but most of the time i just sit and wonder
about that evaporation thing.

not that alot of people just mysteriously
disappear but it seems like alot of people
just kinda fade away, myself included.
that must be it.
i must be evaporating because i feel like i'm
fading away, i mean, i just feel like i'm watching
the world go by like i was watching it on
tv or something and sometimes i try to grab
something as it goes by but
it doesn't even slow down.

i guess that sometimes it's kind of fun
being evaporated because i can do things
others can't. but then again
sometimes it gets pretty lonely.

and sometimes it gets really lonely.

but i don't know what i can do about it
because i figure that alot of people
have been evaporating for a long time and most
of them were probably alot smater than
me and they didn't do anything about it
so i guess i can't either.

anyway, that's about it for these
peculiar thoughts.
at least i figured out what's going on.
i mean, at least i know.

well i think i forgot to fill my cat's dish
today so i'd better go check and see if i did.

© Mark E. Dougherty