Cassidy’s ears, skillfully lovely yet not quite of Earth,
Swivel like the most advanced satellite dishes
To hear the good ghosts that rustle in the night,
As if cloaked in fine-spun gold.
He sniffs the delicate delight of their healing perfume.
O he sees the benevolence of the thoughts of the good ghosts
That haunt our room and clumsily try to extend help to us
Through the bewildering knots and knots of dimensions
That distance us from these spirits reluctant to deceive.
He sniffs fear and love in the room like aromatic candles.
He hears and inhales good and evil
Though no evil comes from the fumbling ghosts, our friends,
Who haunt us and whom we haunt.
Cassidy attempts to instruct us all
At least to read lips, seen or unseen, spirit or human.
But even for Cassidy this teaching is not easy,
He who hears, sees, smells so well
And always knows where float the glow and perfume
Of benevolence, in whatever world we are in or believe we are in.
He can hear and smell clouds in their joy swelling
To fill all skies.
He can hear their tenderness blossom like mountains.
He hears more modest clouds move through blueness as if they
Were simultaneously foam, boat, wave, and sail.
Even upon cessation of the rain,
Cassidy hears grass continue to swooningly sip
While worms shape alphabets through the moistened soil
In their invigorated wiggling.
Cassidy hears birds become alert with the knowledge
Of their fulfillment.
The muzzles of daffodils blare out for my cat
The rejoicing gold of their glow!
But Cassidy in quietude will hear dawn yawning
Like an abyss that blesses;
And he will always hear twilight just begin
To feel the sensitive swell and dip
Of the horizon.
He can hear me smile.
He sniffs my fingertips to get perfect knowledge of my heart.
He hears my footsteps approaching his goodness
Down the slightly painful miles of cement.
When I see him in the dignity of his duty
Peering at supposedly unpopulated air
And hearing salubrious sounds unheard by me
I know he is haunting the good-hearted
But imperfectly-skilled ghosts who are trying to help, trying to help,
And whom my admirable animal
Is trying to guide, trying to guide.
© Stephen Margulies, 2015
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Green-eyed Abyssinian
Photo by Petekurt
from Wikimedia Commons |
