Ferrin & Jordan – November 2012

Erika Ferrin and Michelle Jordan exchanged words and art. Michelle shared this painting, “The Lesson (Two hunters kill to learn),” (a previous TLE work, for double-meta ekphrasis action!) with Erika:

In response, Erika wrote this poem:

Space Cat and the Apocalypse

There’s a grey cat waiting on a red road
Waiting for the world to end
She’s never been off that planet but she knows
It will soon be time

That gray cat knows it’s a big world
Full of things she’s never known
And places she’s never seen
And dreams that sound like the roaring of trains

And as the earth in the distance slowly darkens
She lies silent like Cleopatra alone among her guards
Eyes focused and limbs slack-lined from the weight of eternity on her shoulders
She waits, bereft a thousand lifetimes, for the signal

* * * *

Erika shared this poem with Michelle:

Cat House

You left me a house that is full of cats
A ring on my finger and the other one buried in the ground
There are ten cats now where there were only six
They wind round my legs like snakes
Soft purrs shake me like a giant rattle

I had the weight of a thousand worlds when you left
Until she came around with the child with your eyes
And a request for food money and
I knew it was the truth that I had hidden from myself
For more years that you knew

There are kittens now and
I think another one is pregnant and
A new one came in through the door that you never fixed
And I am afraid they will smother me with darkness
Rather than take me into their warmth and lead me gently into the light

As I lie in our bed the house vibrates with them
Those queens and kings mill about in the dark waiting
Some on their first lives
Others as wise and as thick as old redwood trees
And I am listening for you

In response, Michelle made this painting, “Catastrophic Invasion!”: