Challenging Poetry

2:37 am

no surprise
just a cat on a wooden stair
that led up a leaf green tunnel.

a black cat, who maintained
a dignified stillness through the
sound of a stone jumping frog
calling for his mate, and the drift of
butterfly feathers, falling
to coat the air with light.

I needed to climb the stair,
but only after I gave the password,
which I had forgotten, and in my mad
quest for the word,
the cat thanked me for the stair,
which was warm in the sunlight,

and I knew it was a dream
because cats don't thank,
and I fell awake, sweating,
the echo of croaking frogs
still ringing in my ears.

line count: 20
April 17: a poem based on a dream