The Reader by Tricia Marcella Cimera

Woman Reading, by Will Barnett, 1970.

The Reader

The red counterpane
sets off the white cat
with the orange eyes.
I have a cat with those
eyes and orange striping
through his white fur.
He gives measured looks,
just like this cat.
The woman with her blue
book and cool blue eyes
looks like me, or rather,
her expression is mine
when I get interrupted
while reading. 
It says,
Go away.
The white cat on the red
counterpane doesn’t purr;
nor does mine.
It says,
Go away.
But I can’t go.  Her
blank-faced blue book
fascinates me.
I must ask the question
The Reader
hates.
 
What are you reading?

Tricia Marcella Cimera

Tricia Marcella Cimera is an obsessed reader and lover of words. Look for her work in these diverse places and elsewhere: The Buddhist Poetry Review, Foliate Oak, Fox Adoption, Hedgerow, I Am Not A Silent Poet, Jellyfish Whispers, Mad Swirl, Silver Birch Press, Stepping Stones and Yellow Chair Review.  Her poem “The Swear Poem” is included in the Chicago Poetry Press/Journal of Modern Poetry’s Poetry of Protest edition (JOMP 19).  Tricia  believes there’s no place like her own backyard and has traveled the world (including Graceland).  She lives with her husband and family of animals in Illinois/in a town called St. Charles/by a river named Fox.