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MATTHEW ZAPRUDER

Hello Quiet Protected Night

everyone likes
the new cat
especially you 
but aren't you tired 
of all his leaping
what about 
the old one we got 
before you were born
when we lived 
in Cincinnati 
mild city that two 
centuries ago
when such things
didn't seem silly
called itself 
the name of the ancient
peaceful Roman
general who stayed 
on his farm
we said it
so many times
it became familiar
now it is strange
how it sounds 
so strange
I keep forgetting
you can't remember
you had been 
in our arms
just a few months 
and we drove you
strapped into 
a plastic seat 
the whole way 
from there
to Denver
sleeping and also 
him every few 
seconds meowing
in a little box 
here where home 
has a little echo 
in it like saying 
o in the garage
oh do please 
pet him even 
though he's boring 
he's so old 
he's older than you
he forgot 
how to meow
and doesn't even 
care he can't 
climb anything
as you know
it's hard to be young 
but also at the same 
time older 
everything is always 
in boring ways 
changing and nobody 
wants exactly 
what you want 
they just agree 
whenever you want
something there is 
always something 
you forgot 
to think about 
but at night
when you suddenly
know your eyes
are open
you are not afraid
like when the white 
serious goat
at the petting zoo
stared his thin black 
sidewise rectangles 
right at you 
without blinking
and you laughed 
you are glad 
the secret of being 
awake belongs 
only to you
listen I will tell 
you something 
funny and also sad 
when I was young 
I was so old 
I was careful 
even in my dreams




-originally published in Explosion-Proof


35   The Paris-American

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Matthew Zapruder is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently Come On All You Ghosts, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Currently a Guggenheim Fellow, he is an editor for Wave Books, and teaches at UCR-Palm Desert's Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing. He lives in San Francisco.

   
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 Olivia Clare
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