Rowan Walter

LITTLE FOURPAWS

I will keep the door unlocked
until something human comes.

– Lucille Clifton

when bored as a child I would crawl across the floor
head between my legs, skirt hiked up, my fingers spread wide as toes
determined to explore the world from another angle

I would gallop down hallways, nails digging into the soft wood
scattering housecats and stirring shrieks from a sister so infuriated by
another rowdy installment of “upside-down world”

the movements were so natural, as if I always belonged on four paws
instead of two, my face pooling with the blood of a small body
until passing out in a tired heap of fur on the carpet

I hunted the dust balls and leftover crumbs in each room’s corner
sometimes catching a glimpse of the powers moving in that house
between humans before anyone else could see

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