the 9 stray cat lives of the angels.

and god taught gabriel--
fear not for from the first 
day that you set your 
heart to understand 
and humbled yourself 
before your God, 
your words have been heard

god took a hand full of
marbles from a draw-string bag--
green and sapphire--
captured hints of an ocean
moon-- lips of the hydrangea--
what do you know about
the eyes of the cats?
and he flicked the glass-eyes
with his thumbs
into the gaping-sockets of
the stray cats-- bodies limp 
-- strewn about his workshop

1. 
and so god takes back
the wings of the angels--
spits them out from the clouds
in the bodies of the stray cats
to learn how to love
the humans--

2.
we all had wondered why 
cats land on their feet 
from however high they fall--
they have to make it from
the back stoop of
god's porch-- thrust
off by the nudge of his 
checkerboard slippers--

3.
gabriel had been a calico
with eyes of drooping tree-sap--
raphael the tabby--
lucifer-- white and mismatched
marble eyes glinting 
with the kind of curiosity
that knocks over candles--

4.
they preen feathers 
with their tongue--

5.
they had never suspected
that the humans had
so many things to fear-- 

6.
they learn feast and fat 
bitten through the black skin
of a trash bag--

7.
god's love was nothing
more than the hands
of the neighbor boy
who hands out ring bologna--

8.
god spoke
through the pools of rain-water
collected in the uneven pavement

9.
but the worst part
was the urge to devour
the birds-- they could
handle eating mice
but there was something easy
about coughing--
mouth dry with crumpled 
feathers
and the fear of having
no control over
eating another animals
who had once 
flown so much like
them--

9.
return in never the same

9.
some angels keep their
marble eyes in the pockets--
fling bodies off the back step
of a cloud--

9.
what god didn't expect 
was how many angels 
would refuse to come back--

9.
eyes still float in their reflect
painted in a pool
of rain water--