an old writer and his words

  • YOU ODE ME ONE

    I should write an ode to my catbut she claims all of the good oneshave already been written and shewould not settle for less than the best.She says I could write an odeto the television remote or eventhe microwave oven, but I noteto her that an ode is to someone,something worthy, beneficialand she nods in…

    Lou Faber

  • NO ENTRY

    . Each night we go off to bedand close the bedroom doorbarring the cat from entryinto our sanctuary, the onlyroom in the house she is notfree to roam at her will.We do this because we are allergic,because she is a cat and cannotbe trusted not to do somethingwe might regret in the morning,because she is…

    Lou Faber

  • NEXT TIME

    He is certain that in his next life he does not want to be a dog. Having to go outside in all sorts of weather for basic bodily functions is not for him. And he has never been fond of leashe,s on either of their ends. He is not sure, given where the courts have…

    Lou Faber

  • STOP THAT

    We love nothing more than to anthropomorphize. It is one of our defining characteristics. We cannot avoid it even if we try. We never try. It makes our lives simpler since we can relate more easily to people than to animals or things. And after all, we did make God in our image, or is…

    Lou Faber

  • LURKING

    You lurk behind meas I sit at the islandboth the messenger and the message.You appear magicallyon my chair back, your tailwrapping my neck, a mink like scarfregardless of the temperature.I hear a slowly growing rumbleas if with my ear to the groundI can sense a distant temblor.And then there is the flickof dampened sandpaper on…

    Lou Faber

  • PAUSE

    This morning a lone snowy egretperched stoically atop the leafless treerising out of the small preserve.Of what was it a harbinger, whatmessage was I needing, failing to hear?Was it in search of a dove amid endlessnews of wars still raging on,or was it repeating the unheard warningof what we had wrought in its onceedenic world,…

    Lou Faber

  • COMMON UNDERSTANDING

    It didn’t surprise him that hequickly understood the catthey adopted during the pandemicfor all he had to do was applybasic feline logic, that everythingin her new home was eitherhers or theirs collectively,it was just that simple.He had come from a place,a life, where there had beenhers and theirs, simple.When that life ended, as everyonebut him…

    Lou Faber

  • HOW OLD?

    People say that dogs can liveto well over 100 dog years,but each of our yearsis seven of theirs, soour self-delusion feels complete.We want old age for our dogsto feel they have lived a full life,something we also want for ourselvesand so we project on our pets.The odd thing is that as we agewe wonder if…

    Lou Faber

  • CERTAIN MORNINGS

    There are morningswhen I wishI could be the cat,sit in the corner,close my eyes andwatch the worldsuddenly disappear.The cat breaksmy reverie, purringthere is room for oneand this roleis all mine. First appeared in The Flying Dodo, Issue 4, January 2023https://fantasyfantasywave.wixsite.com/my-site/louis-faber-certain-mornings

    Lou Faber

  • CAT’S GAME

    The cat is sleeping on the lanai, on the plant table among the bromeliads. The cat spends hours sleeping on the lanai when she isn’t walking on tables. There are tables on the lanai she walks on regularly. Walking on tables is forbidden we repeatedly tell her and we know she understands, but the cat…

    Lou Faber