I’m on your side, paw to paw against
all these rising kitten generations
that multiply like yeast in warm saucers.
These catlings grown to uppity adulthood,
their paws upon your territory, who sniff
and write their flagrant signatures upon
your walls and bushes.

We’re allies, and I do not care to see
how, in their eyes, you have no history.
They do not know how all-in-all supreme
and competent you were in feline ways,
how energetically you sprang at birds
and scrapped with enemies, reckless of
your ragged ears.

Maybe you don’t even care, can sit
in a smaller patch of sunlight and still purr,
would be content to stay indoors. But I
am on your side, and keep a water pistol loaded
for the young. Nothing dangerous, of course.
Just a warning squirt to point out that we’re here.
It’s my turf too.
Alice Major, from “Time Travels Light”