Black and white

based on suggestions from @realnixwilliams, @snazzydee, @sorrel_smith (who is responsible for the AAAAAAetc rhyme scheme), @slimejam, @ernmalleyscat, @kirsty_I

He was overlooked because he was black and white.

His eyes looked stuck-on, for buttoning, not sight.

Breedless; no exotic mountain fur or purple pastel highlight

He was comfortable on one human palm; embodied slight.

“He’s got a funny head,” you said, forthright.

“Is that mange? Is that a flea? Is that a bite?”

I liked his funny head, his spots of blight

How he’d not be left uncuddled without fight.

Near shelter, our car stopped short at one green light

would not be revived. We moved it quite

out of traffic, grabbed cat carrier, took flight.

Trudged the streets of Carlton, bemoaned our plight.

Each landmark built the kitten’s fur: dark and bright

Interiors screamed exhibition colours built on might

Make him seem stark, blessed only with the opposite

of golden flamed cerise, seemed to ignite.

At last at home, he leapt out of the cage despite

new landscape. Skittered chairs and danced the rite

of Spring. Then hauled up lapwards and sat tight.

Perfect circle of a cat, curled round in delight.

______________________________________________

Today's poem is based on suggestions from six peeps:

• @realnixwilliams: “colours: those pastel ones that look great in the sky but horrible in interior design.”
• @slimejam: “Can you include something about the Old Exhibition Building. Or maybe something circular, like the pizza I had. Also, Carlton.”
• @sorrel_smith: “How about *every* line rhymes (ie AAAAA...) Or am I being too mean?” (It’s probably meaner to the reader than it is to me!)
• @ernmalleyscat: “what it's like to be an orphaned black & white domestic shorthair that fits in the palm of a human hand.”
• @kirsty_I : “Lavender-point Himalayan #cats”
• @snazzydee: “Cerise”

Coincidental to @ernmalleyscat's suggestion, I actually do have a black & white domestic shorthair cat (Tolly) that I got from the Lost Dog's Home in 2004. I liked him because he had quite an odd face, and his eyes did look like stuck-on buttons (shades of Coraline's Other Mother, but not so creepy). And our notorious Honda Civic (the one where if you revved it too hard, the radio changed stations) did break down while on the way home from the vet's one day. We had to lug the cat carrier home on foot. He's enormous now (he weighs about 8kg, he's not particularly fat, just HUGE), and still headstrong and crazy-eyed like he was as a kitten. Here he is, about to attack me: