Bill O’Connell has lived in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts since 1984. A retired social worker, he teaches literature and writing at Greenfield Community College. He is a past contributor to The Lowell Review and graduated from UMass Lowell. His books include When We Were All Still Alive (Open Field Press 2021); Sakonnet Point (Plinth Books 2011); and On The Map To Your Life (Dytiscid Press 1992). His writing has appeared in anthologies and literary magazines such as The Sun, Poetry East, Colorado Review, Green Mountains Review, etc. His website is billoetry.wordpress.com

About the poem below, which originally appeared in The Worcester Review, here’s what he wrote on Facebook recently. Also, after the poem there’s a video of Mittens listening to music.

“Our beloved 21 yr old cat, Mittens, passed on today. Ben’s punk band in high school used to practice in a barn and they’d put the barn kittens into their coat pockets to keep their hands warm. She was the runt of the litter and quite a character, and Robin and I and our kids and grandkids and friends will miss her.

 

Feeding the Cat and the Fire

The woodstove burned all night, the last log

a glowing ghost of itself, a frozen

twenty-inch chunk from the rack on the deck

shoved in, red oak from Pelham cut, split,

and hauled by my wood guy’s son

when he drops two cord in my driveway

in the fall.

The cat and I are old.

Her rear-end droops, arthritic.

My knees swell at four a.m.

when I wake to feed her, the two of us

descending the stairs in the dark,

houses up and down the street

hunched over in snow.

I open a can of seafood delight, the stink of it

on my fingertips, and make coffee.

I don’t go to the office anymore.

She hasn’t killed a mouse in years,

but she crowds her dish

as if the pride were still in her, with her,

pushing into the kill for a meal.

She finishes and I pour a cup.

We troop back up

to where it is warm,

last night’s embers receiving

the fresh log placed gently

into them, new flame

licking up and around.

—

You can see Mittens in this video.