How do I break thee? Let me count the ways.
I break thee if thou art at any height
My paw can reach, when smarting from some slight,
I sulk, or have one of my crazy days.
I break thee with an accidental graze
Or twitch of tail, if I should take a fright.
I break thee out of pure and simple spite
The way I broke the jar of mayonnaise.
I break thee if I’m in a playful mood,
And then I wrestle with the shiny bits.
I break thee if I do not like my food.
And if someone they shards together fits,
I’ll break thee once again when thou art glued.
~Henry N. Beard, Poetry for Cats~
The photograph was taken during the first Christmas spent with our adopted stray cat "Timothy Mingz". The Christmas stocking is an extra stocking of my daughter with her name on it. We temporarily labeled the stocking with “Mingz” name and hang it in the cabinet where my favorite vase used to be an adornment until Mingz broke it.
The following Christmas I permanently named that stocking with Mingz’ name and just like my kids, Mingz always got presents from Santa on Christmas mornings.
A pang of sadness hit me as I hang the Christmas stockings last Christmas. Mingz went to cat heaven in February of last year. Last Christmas was the first Christmas without Mingz. I never replaced the vase even after he died.
I used the poem “How Do I Break Thee” to add a little lightness in this post. I saw that there’s an on going fun in Facebook that my fellow blogger is on that I interestingly joined. It goes like this:
“Fill Facebook with poetry. Like my status and I will give you a poet. Select a poem written by the poet and post as your status.”
“How Do I Love Thee” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning is one of my most favorite poem. I just thought that it is fitting to add a poem patterned to this when writing about my most beloved pet.
How about you? Who is your favorite poet or what is your favorite poem? Can you relate it to your pet? Or to anybody?
