sleep
It was difficult to sleep last night.
All the darkling hours an unknown marmalade cat did cry and wail outside my door. What a range of expression it had. Thought it was the autumn storm (Brother North Wind raging across the nation, over here in rainy England). So, into the wind and the driving rain we go, to open up an outhouse for the lonesome traveller, in its lostness, to take shelter. No joy. The stranger had other ideas.
Thank God, though, all things come to pass. Now the morning is come and the cat is gone. But, man, I was thinking demon thoughts about that fellow air-breather, all in its endless lamentations. Just before sleep finally did arrive, a strange notion took hold. Maybe it was a woman I once scorned, doing a haunting in shamanic morphosis. Crazy.
Whatever. I'm awake now (perchance, like Zhuangzi moth). But that last idea clings on. You know, hanging in my skull like a sleepless bat amongst the dead leaves and spiders.
old pond
a frog climbs out
the sound of puffing
jp
First aired here
06-09-11