In the midst of darkness, A new friend appeared Like an angel sent from heaven. Her graceful dances captivated me, And my eyes focused On following her every movement. A moment of curiosity Struck a desire deep within my soul. And with a single touch, She mended what had once Been broken inside of me. The clock kept ticking But in her presence, The flow of time had been disrupted. She left the way she came, With a hint of mystery. That was the last I ever saw My friend, Hermes the stray cat.
One summer evening in 2019, a stray calico cat approached me as I was sitting in my backyard. She started weaving through my legs and flirtatiously rolling around on the grass. I instantly fell in love and decided to name her Hermes. When she left, I wrote this poem thinking it was a one-time divine encounter during a low point in my life. Turns out, she would come back almost every day to sleep on the patio chair, paw at the window as if to signal her return, and just hang out. When I would go on walks around the neighborhood lake, she would accompany me by my side (no leash but she would follow me around). One time, she came back after seemingly getting into a fight with another cat, so my family set up a little home for her inside until she recovered from her injuries. We finally posted on Nextdoor asking if she was anyone’s outside cat. That’s when we discovered her name is actually Caramel, and despite returning her to her owners, she still made her way over all the time, up until we moved out in 2022.