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YOUR CART

Angela Gaito-Lagnese

Feral

The kids drag that goddamn cat into the basement 
during summer thunder     gales whipping 
plastic patio chairs across the yard     the sky green 
like an old bruise.     The cat is feral, her fur a silver-gray    
her belly swollen     yowling for food.     The kids 
are yowling, too     until I say she can stay. 

Weeks later     the kittens are born under the cellar steps 
tiny and soft, a constant mewing. 
They suck their mama dry, nursing until her eyes sink in     
her ribs showing     pink tongue panting     
her hair falling out in tuffs     until no one wants 

to touch her     no one wants to watch     her sprit splitting.
One night, she finally limps out the backdoor     
while I cook and clean and soothe the children   
preparing for the next day’s work     steel wool scraping 
against cast iron         humming myself 
down to sinew and vein     breathing 
a sigh of relief that she’s gone. 
  
I don’t know if that mama cat spends her nights 
chasing sewer rats through back alleyways     
or digging through dumpsters behind Tony’s Diner     
or leaping under streetlamps     pouncing on shadows 
cast by the gloom.    I don’t know if she remembers 
the smell of us     

or swoons under a stranger’s porch     in the high sunlight 
of August     but I’d be lying if I say I’m not jealous.    
Sometimes I think I hear her     screeching under the full blue 
shimmer of moonlight     calling me into the damp air 
of anywhere     promising      I could leave them 
if I choose.
September / October, 2022

Barbara Daniels
Angela Gaito-Lagnese is the author of the poetry chapbook, Squalling (Main Street Rag, May 2021) and is currently at work on a full-length poetry book. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Nasty Women and Bad Hombres, Main Street Rag, Pittsburgh City Paper, OyeDrum, Angel City Review, Northern Appalachia Review, and other journals. Gaito-Lagnese has an MFA in fiction from the University of Pittsburgh and is a regular poetry Madwomen at Carlow University.
Art: Madge Evers. Close to the Sun. Mushroom spores on paper. 
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