Leo

As a child I’d laze in sunbeams,

My head on my chin as my teeth gnawed blades of grass from the garden

Staring lost in the gaze of my mom’s regal

Magnificent Leo

We grew up together, he and I, on the lap of my mother,

Two kittens drunk on the sweetened milk

Of the touch of her hands

And the edge of her whisper,

Holding us close as we kneaded

Our love into her sides until

She laughed and how

I wanted her to know she was beautiful

In a way a mother is always God to her child

Moving like a dancer as she walked

Through tomato plants pressing seeds into my palms

And I’d tunnel through the leaves to find the sunny spots

That were the quietest

And Leo always found me

And we’d tangle limbs in vines and each other

Because cats know their kind,

And I remember how she taught gentleness

In how she kissed him as he closed his eyes in bliss

And he’d rattle my fingertips

As he adored her, pressing his claws into me.

This

Was love.