The Cat Vet

for Dr. Bebko

A cat is only a cat,
and, yes, there are women
sleeping under bridges,
children beaten,
acts too horrible to voice
by those of us
endowed with words.

Yet if a cat,
who is only a cat,
is your cat
(and perhaps that cat
is the only entity
who notices you
as more than a passing stranger:
a buyer of groceries,
a shape on a bus),
if that cat loves you
(if we are allowed to say
that an animal is capable of love),
then may you find a vet
who would never think
"It's only a cat."

A vet whose hands have soothed,
injected, sutured, palpated
the torn and frail and anxious;
a vet who can't stop himself
worrying about cats.

A vet who is only a man —
fallible, weary, capable of anger —
but yet is the one man
into whose hands
I place, without hesitation,
the paws and tails and questioning ears
of my cats.

back to issue

Mary Soon Lee was born and raised in London, but has lived in Pittsburgh for thirty years. She is a Grand Master of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association, and three-time winner of both the AnLab Readers' Award and the Rhysling Award. Her latest poetry book, "How to Navigate Our Universe," answers vexing questions such as "How to Surprise Saturn" and "How to Survive a Black Hole." She hides her online presence with a cryptically named website (marysoonlee.com and an equally cryptic Twitter account (@MarySoonLee).