Susan Minot's "Interloper"

We like to page through our backlist in search of gone but not forgotten little gems like this one from the novelist Susan Minot.

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Interloper

There’s a cat up on the roof
with stripes across his face.
He has the curious guarded look
of a cat who knows this place
may be inhabited
by other cats.
I see him through the window
past yellow tangles on the sill,
beyond the long pegged rack
of all my heartsick hats.
He lifts his paw and shakes off rain.
His face is wild and true.
For a moment he relieves me
of the pain of loving you.

Excerpt from POEMS 4 A.M. © 2002 by Susan Minot.  Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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