Dogs & Cats--By d. n. simmers--Canada

Dogs & Cats

        " Seeing, seeing on the dead leaves
            flying, plunging and expire."
                            Allen Tate 
 
She smiles while at the pet store. She smiles and waits.
It is a sad smile just the same. I am here to get some
kitty litter and she is after dog treats.
I see here at the mall, days later, sitting by herself.
Munching on a half sandwich while I sit four stalls
away with a bowl of soup.
What makes the dog in her like the cat in me ?
Is there smoke in the air?
Her smile is so close to the earth.
I don't know here. I did not date her as a child. Nor
did our children play sports together.
She does not have a ring nor do I.
I remember the last time I came back from a flight.
I was a kid then and maybe she was waiting for her parents.
Someone in the bunch as we got off our plane.
My cat has moved away. She left awhile ago.
I do not go to the same pet store now.
I have moved on. Maybe I will go back to
where I was. Someday.

d. n. simmers is an on line editor with Fine Lines. He is in will be in Poetry Salzburg Review, the Storyteller, Iconoclast, Plainsongs, California Quarterly, Poets Touchstone, Bluestem, and  Nomad's Choir. He is on line in poetrymag.com, red river review, new american digital, storyacious, and word press. He is in an newly launched anthology Royal City Poets ( 4) and was in Van Gogh's Ear, Paris France.