Two Poems by K. Lipschultz

by K. Lipschultz

Poem for Roberto Bolaño, Boscoe and Me

Death’s cheek he brushed, did he,

the Latin American poet? I brushed

my sleek black cat. Lucky boy,

my sleepy friend, who doesn’t know

about his late-stage cardiomyopathy

as we brush cheeks or any

other time.

The Latin American died

waiting on a transplant. Fame

inched closer as his organ failed.

My cat is blinking, he is waiting too,

to hear the lines that will eclipse

the lines that Kit Smart wrote

for Jeoffry.

We shared the same disease

but I would rather have his passport

and his Latin American literary life:

drifting, roaming, feuding, starting

movements, ending others.

My cat rubs me

with unsettling affection in his eyes.

Neither one of us, he blinks, will ever die.

One True Thing

cat’s eyes

His name on my lips is a tonic,

His habits a wheel of surprise.

Bold eyes fixed on mine

(Yellow pools, almond, amazed)

Comprehend this much:

I adore him.

His fur is brown in the sun,

Unshined-on, he’s black again.

Bold eyes fixed on mine

(Yellow pools, almond, amazed)

Absorb light bearing the news:

I adore him.