image notes: film photograph, approximately 1993
Tommy wandered quite a bit, as tomcats will do, but he always came jumping over the six-foot wood fence about dusk.
Then, one night he didn’t.
If the pull of the outside world is strong, there is also a pull towards the human. The cat may disappear on its own errands, but sooner or later, it returns once again for a little while, to greet us with its own type of love.
— Lloyd Alexander said that
The tomcats and the babies
are howling at the moon
the days are too short
and the nights come too soon
there’s cold in the future
there’s rain in the wind
nobody’s outside
there’s a storm coming in
all the leaves have left
the carnivals gone
the neighbors have quit
trying to spruce up their lawns
Storm windows are up
sunflowers are dead
the pumpkins are done
there’s geese overhead
and the hills they turned yellow
they turned red they turned sad
and everybody’s talking
about the summer they had
and that car that you fixed
well it broke down again
and I know that the world’s
never gonna feel quite the same
It’s a done deal it’s over
it’s faded to black
you’re turnin’ your key
and you’re not coming back
Lynn Miles, (Singer/Songwriter), CD: LYNN MILES – UNRAVEL