Your old cat sleeps
on your chest.
She’s heavy
—you like that.
She purrs
deeply,
the vibration
of sound,
levels and layers
beneath
levels and layers:
the growl
and the whirl
of life,
the best
and the worst.
And you know
the sun will rise
in a few hours.
And there will be time
to forget,
time for frustration.
For now,
your heart beats,
lost beneath
her purr.
About the Author: Jacob Friesenhahn is the author of the poetry collection The Prayer of the Mantis (Kelsay Books, 2025). This version of the poem appears here for the first time, based on a poem of the same name published in The Prayer of the Mantis.