Companion

i am many beautifully 
articulable things. 

i am small; i fit 
in the scooping basket of your arms 
when i allow the interruption, 
which is almost always. 

i speak in perfect, bright chirps, 
some that sound more like words than others,
but my language is my own secret 
that i keep very well. 

i am patchy in color 
like an exhaustion of sky. my black & white 
fur reminds you of the way light plays 
in canopies of leaves, or the patterns 

inside marbled rye. 
i love the waterfalls of sunlight 
that yellow the floorboards 
& i love your lap.

i am, really, very simple. 
sit down, & i will run to you.