Ode to the Cat    

There was something wrong
   with the animals:
their tails were too long, and they had
   unfortunate heads.
Then they started coming together,
   little by little
fitting together to make a landscape,
   developing birthmarks, grace, pep.

But the cat,
   only the cat
turned out finished,
   and proud:
born in a state of total completion,
it sticks to itself and knows exactly
   what it wants.

Pablo Neruda
1904-1973

from Odes to Common Things
translated from the Spanish by Ken Krabbenhoft

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