While I was washing dishes

While I was washing dishes

the cat jumped on my back

You were not there to see it

You’ll just have to believe me when I say

It happened like this:

There I am washing dishes

It is the first day of the new year and I’m unsure-

            -how to feel

            -what to do

            -how special, how ordinary

             11 a.m. should be

And then it comes upon me—

The dishes! A manageable little disaster of

crusted oatmeal and coffee grinds, yesterday’s

remnants of fried egg, a still-moist dish rag

under the drying rack, and also

the easy incremental fixing of things,

a good excuse for getting my hands warm and wet

Overall it’s my favorite chore …

And then it happened!

The cat,

from down below his eyes fixated

on both shoulders

darting back and forth,

the way animals make their calculations—how unmistakably

right their every move,

his back haunches

ready for take off

and then like a child’s winding toy unhinged from its springs

flying cat!

All 11 lbs and more than 5 feet of air

Landing just so in an acrobatic embrace

One front mitten

(all 7 toes—you must know that my cat has gentle, giant, cartoon-lion paws, all love and soft as cashmere)

tucked precariously in the crook of my neck

the other, like a delicate caress on my left shoulder

and those powerful hind legs wrapped

around the smallest part of my waist, as a child

attaches to its mother,

defying gravity

with tender trust and affection

I bend slightly to his desire

to be near me—and also because

I like having him here—and

I wonder at you seeing me

Here in this hunched over position

This beast now curled in a perfect C

around my shoulders

(did I mention how good looking he is?)

And I’m reminded of that time

a few weeks ago

at that holiday party

where I didn’t know anybody, talking with

two family men about gardening projects—

me, the most fashionable in tights and a glittered dress

and that slender single aura

as I negotiate conversation space with distracted parents—

someone else’s small child wandering through the forest of adult legs

encountered mine

and rested there

her arms encircling my leg

pudgy cheek just above my knee

And I thought—

quiet everyone—

just a moment please—

let her rest here just a little longer