The Promise

by Mary Rykov

I rehomed a pre-loved, four-year-old feline in self-defence during August 2020 when mice moved in from COVID-shuttered restaurants, leapfrogging my baited traps in packs of four and five. Living up to the trickster reputation of her name, Raven is larger IRL than her demure Kijiji image appeared, and her angelic face belies a bossy inherence. Worst, her copious shedding pairs poorly with my cat allergy and errant housekeeping. Who knew the American Shorthair sheds so much? Truth be told, I am smitten by her purrrrrrs and her mousing skills. So, given all that, I promise not to vacuum my cat.

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Mary Rykov a Puerto Rican Canadian writing mentor and editor in Tkaronto, serves as volunteer editor for refugee writers through PEN Canada. Her poetry collection, some conditions apply, launched in 2020. Raven evokes a perpetual Gertrude-Stein’s-Cat poem sequence; her first poem, “QWERTY (By Raven, For Gertrude Stein’s Cat)” was published in filling Station (Issue 79, Play). Gertrude Stein’s Cat, for the record, is a scrappy, stray tom tabby and best kept secret that Gertrude and Alice never had. Said cat never woke Gertrude by balancing his eighteen pounds on her full bladder, his bum in her face. Never.