{"id":2875,"date":"2021-12-31T19:26:41","date_gmt":"2022-01-01T03:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/?p=2875"},"modified":"2024-11-27T09:03:28","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T17:03:28","slug":"he-was-a-hell-of-a-cat-by-kathlene-postma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/he-was-a-hell-of-a-cat-by-kathlene-postma\/","title":{"rendered":"“He Was a Hell of a Cat” by Kathlene Postma"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"issue69\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Found in\u00a0Willow Springs 69<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to Author Profile<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

\n\n

“He Was a Hell of a Cat” by Kathlene Postma<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

He Was a Hell of a Cat<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a hell of a fish<\/p>\n\n\n\n

throaty with a mouth wide<\/p>\n\n\n\n

as a mason jar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was a hell of a cat<\/p>\n\n\n\n

wailing with a tail twisted<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and full as time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You remember how it was<\/p>\n\n\n\n

those last days in July<\/p>\n\n\n\n

beside the milk pod field where<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

sandhill cranes walked against<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the sun, filed across the grass<\/p>\n\n\n\n

as if checking for landmines<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

while we fried the fish and tossed<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the  cat  because he was young<\/p>\n\n\n\n

like us and he knew<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

how  to  find his way<\/p>\n\n\n\n

back. He slid low against<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the scented thyme, a patch<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

of white fur that flickered<\/p>\n\n\n\n

like moonlight on a<\/p>\n\n\n\n

troubled lake. You said, One day<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

this will all be as if it never<\/p>\n\n\n\n

were, you with me,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the cranes surging across<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

the field, their wildness in their throats,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the fish tender in our mouths,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

and that cat arcing against the sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That cat we would take with us<\/p>\n\n\n\n

for years, until yesterday when<\/p>\n\n\n\n

we put him down, his tail dirty and limp,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

mouth open and gasping. His<\/p>\n\n\n\n

head in your hands, his feet in mine,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

we held him for the needle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said, That summer we were<\/p>\n\n\n\n

so <\/em>in love. Then the cat went<\/p>\n\n\n\n

still and you put your mouth to mine.<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":23834,"featured_media":680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpo365_audiences":[],"wpo365_private":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2875"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23834"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2875"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37158,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2875\/revisions\/37158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.ewu.edu\/willowspringsmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}