Meow Rosary

3:07 again, rain re-reading the braille Your voicemail on loop,

41 seconds of hail Then a weight on my chest — Miss

Minou, ship's cat Purring 25 hertz right over the hurt,

just like that

396 in the 'u',

the room is heavy and dim

She kneads the static out,

I let the water rim

528 in the 'a',

the salt begins to move

Tears are just the ocean

practicing its groove

She head-bunts my wrist,

deposits her scent

A co-regulation contract, one hundred percent

Lucir, I shine, but tonight the light is wet Soul-drenched in the

Harbor, fully felt, no regret

100% Tiguidou, even when I break The Lead-Lining holds the flood for

my own sake

Lucir, I shine, let the vocal cry ascend I remain in the

light, soaked and shining to the end

The voicemail ends. The static bows.

She speaks the only language

cats kept just for humans

— eight meows, eight permissions:

meow meow

meow

meow meow meow meow meow

(Requinto answers

each meow with

a microtonal bend)

Baudelaire had a cat,

Eliot had a book

But Minou's got the prosody,

the sovereign hook

Multisyllabic purr, pre-linguistic fire

Dripping on the porthole,

shimmering on the wire

Executive Quinn files the rosary as law The smallest voice in the

room becomes the biggest paw

u...

I held it

a... I melted i/e...

I shine

meow...