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Sunday, December 11, 2005

Cats I Have Known, pt. 1









The celebrity (= media whore)



The Oedipus Riddle
to a cat with a swollen paw

Left-hook at the air in big-eyed fury,
on your belly, on your back,
jump and jump again and fail to snag
the foe that is your own sweet paw:

swell-foot, Oedipuss, your furry
doom to swallow your pride, swallow my pills
and give me thanks, a two-leg, that you still
can walk on one, two, three legs, four.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I realize this is ancient history, but I came across this poem (and your blog) during a google search for poetry related to Oedipus Rex. I teach Oedipus to high school seniors and would love to include the poem in the unit...it's charming and witty. I would, of course, want to give attribution. Did you write this? Would you mind my printing it for class use?

puthwuth said...

I did write this, yes, and please feel free to use it. Thank you.

puthwuth said...

The 'media whore' label is a reference to the fact that the poem appeared in a magazine, and the same black cat has had other poems about him in other magazines and books too.