2526. Itch before scratch

Silas had been accepted for training in a job he had wanted all his life. It wasn’t so much a “job” as a calling, a vocation, a fulfilment of a dream.

One of the first things the group of candidates were told was if they got an itch they were not to scratch. “If you concentrate on the itch intensely it will go away quickly without scratching. You have a lifetime of scratching when it itches. The motto is: To scratch the scratch, don’t scratch!” At one stage, to facilitate this, a few fleas were released unknown to the group, during a lecture. No one scratched and yet quite a few felt a flea or two!

Silas passed with flying colours, not only the scratch test but everything else as well. In fact he was first in the class of the five candidates who had survived the training. His first undertaking was at hand. It was the most exciting day of his life!

The task began! It was going well! And then – an itch began. Was it a flea? Was it some sort of nit? Silas couldn’t help it. He took a hand off the controls and with one arm he briefly scratched.

It wasn’t exactly the right thing to do when flying in close formation at the Fort Worth Air Show.

Poem 93: Yet another poem about a dead cat

My cat woke me at four each morning.
She would jump on the bed and claw the pillow
right next to my eyes.
I would wake, fearful for my sight.
Would I never again see the day slip over the hill?
Would I never again see the moon slip over the hill
or the barley field wave in the wind?
Perhaps by patting the cat I could doze a little longer.
Bloody cat.

Fourteen years ago,
on a night I could not sleep,
I rose from bed at four and fed the cat.
Breakfast at four became her rite, her right.
Bloody cat.

Last year she was sick.
The veterinarian said
“That’ll be one hundred and thirty dollars please.”
I gave up wine and stuff for a month to pay for it.
That bloody cat was more of a nuisance than I ever imagined.

Last week she died.
If she came back I’d let her scratch out my eyes.

To hear the poem read click HERE!