You climb the rusted lattice slow
Where potted geraniums lean
Your calico coat catches glow
Of dusk on peeling green
Each paw a root in iron cracks
You shed the day like cortex bark
The summer air holds no turning back
Just chlorophyll in growing dark
Taxonomy of stray and steel
You bloom where nothing else can heal
Felis catus veridian real
Unspooling on this iron reel
Your whiskers test the wind for rain
Like stigmas catching pollen flight
No Latin name for this domain
Just survival written in the light
Taxonomy of stray and steel
You bloom where nothing else can heal
Felis catus veridian real
Unspooling on this iron reel
The harmonica breathes low and long
Pedal steel weeps through the vine
You are not lost you belong
To this cracked and climbing line
Night pulls its blanket indigo
You curl in fractal spirals tight
The city hums a lullaby
Your purr a root holds on through night
Morning finds you still in place
Dew on fur like xylem sap
Another species same old grace
No label for this nature's map
Taxonomy of stray and steel
You bloom where nothing else can heal
Felis catus veridian real
Unspooling on this iron reel
Rooted in the rust and air
You grow you grow you're already there
