Poem: "Emergency Kittens"
This poem is from today's fishbowl. It was inspired and opened for crowdfunding by Dreamwidth user Elicat, who wanted to sponsor the "cat" square in my 11-1-24 card for the Sleepytime Bear Bingo. it belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics. Purrtland House is introduced in "Nature, Houses, and Living Beings" so this will make more sense if you read that first.
This microfunded poem is being posted one verse at a time, as donations come in to cover them. The rate is $0.50/line, so $5 will reveal 10 new lines, and so forth. There is a permanent donation button on my profile page, or you can contact me for other arrangements. You can also ask me about the number of lines per verse, if you want to fund a certain number of verses.
So far sponsors include: DW users Librarygeek, Fuzzyred
FULLY FUNDED
74 lines, Buy It Now = $37
Amount donated = $20
Verses posted = 12 of 27
Amount remaining to fund fully = $17
Amount needed to fund next verse = $1.50
Amount needed to fund the verse after that = $1
Warning: This poem contains intense and controversial topics. Highlight to read the more detailed warnings, some of which are spoiilers. It includes hiding vulnerability, family intolerance of gender diversity, disownment, a homeless teen, moving into a new home, few belongings, trying not to cry, and other challenges. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.
"Emergency Kittens"
[Sunday, March 13, 2016]
Shayne Barry slouched up
the stone path toward the door.
The house was pretty enough,
warm stucco walls hidden amidst
a veritable jungle of landscaping.
The driver had offered to walk em
to the door, but Shayne had declined,
not wanting to show any vulnerability.
Instead ey clutched eir backpack
and resolutely rang the doorbell.
Yesterday had been eir birthday,
but there was nothing "sweet" about
turning sixteen -- eir parents had
demanded that Shayne desist in
the "gender nonsense," and when
ey refused, they disowned em.
Shayne had fled, and later at
a bus stop had met someone
from a Triton Teen Center who
had directed em to this safehouse
for queer youth, Purrtland House.
The door opened, revealing a Hispanic man
and ... cats. There were cats everywhere,
scattered over the terra-cotta floor and
up the walls along colorful catwalks.
Water trickled, drawing Shayne's eye
to a pool full of lazily swimming fish.
"Hi, I'm Gerardo Martin, and these are
Thanh Vannuy," -- a college-age Asian boy --
"and Tai Davis," -- a teenage Asian boy.
"Welcome to Purrtland House. We've
been expecting you. Come on, and
I'll show you to your new room."
"Thank you," Shayne whispered,
and followed Gerardo downstairs.
"Here's your bedroom," Gerardo said,
opening a door. "Make yourself at home."
It was a nice room, with an easy chair
and a dressing bench besides the bed,
all done in neutral browns and blue-grays.
It took less than a minute for Shayne
to put away everything ey owned
and go back up to the living room.
Ey sat on the curving couch, trying
and failing not to start crying.
"Oh shit, what do we do now?"
Tai said, sounding panicked.
"I'll get the emergency kittens,"
Thanh said as he hurried away.
"You're safe here," Gerardo said,
wrapping Shayne in a blanket.
Thanh returned with a basket of kittens:
a tortoiseshell, a gray calico, a gray tabby,
and two tabbies with white markings.
"I like to put them inside my shirt,"
he said as he unpacked them.
That sounded wonderful, so
Shayne tucked the kittens
into the front of eir hoodie.
Most of them promptly fell asleep
in a warm, buzzing heap but the gray
poked his head out through the neck.
"What's his name?" Shayne asked,
petting the fuzzy ears. "He's cute."
"Nothing yet," said Gerardo. "We're
waiting for something to come up."
"What about Rallentando?" ey said.
"It means gradually slowing down,
and he has such a musical purr."
"That sounds perfect," said Gerardo,
and the kitten meowed his agreement.
Shayne snuggled deeper into the couch
and cradled the purring kittens. Eir life was
still a disaster, but a day full of kittens
surely couldn't be all bad.
* * *
Notes:
This poem's notes are long, so they appear elsewhere.
This microfunded poem is being posted one verse at a time, as donations come in to cover them. The rate is $0.50/line, so $5 will reveal 10 new lines, and so forth. There is a permanent donation button on my profile page, or you can contact me for other arrangements. You can also ask me about the number of lines per verse, if you want to fund a certain number of verses.
So far sponsors include: DW users Librarygeek, Fuzzyred
FULLY FUNDED
74 lines, Buy It Now = $37
Amount donated = $20
Verses posted = 12 of 27
Amount remaining to fund fully = $17
Amount needed to fund next verse = $1.50
Amount needed to fund the verse after that = $1
Warning: This poem contains intense and controversial topics. Highlight to read the more detailed warnings, some of which are spoiilers. It includes hiding vulnerability, family intolerance of gender diversity, disownment, a homeless teen, moving into a new home, few belongings, trying not to cry, and other challenges. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.
"Emergency Kittens"
[Sunday, March 13, 2016]
Shayne Barry slouched up
the stone path toward the door.
The house was pretty enough,
warm stucco walls hidden amidst
a veritable jungle of landscaping.
The driver had offered to walk em
to the door, but Shayne had declined,
not wanting to show any vulnerability.
Instead ey clutched eir backpack
and resolutely rang the doorbell.
Yesterday had been eir birthday,
but there was nothing "sweet" about
turning sixteen -- eir parents had
demanded that Shayne desist in
the "gender nonsense," and when
ey refused, they disowned em.
Shayne had fled, and later at
a bus stop had met someone
from a Triton Teen Center who
had directed em to this safehouse
for queer youth, Purrtland House.
The door opened, revealing a Hispanic man
and ... cats. There were cats everywhere,
scattered over the terra-cotta floor and
up the walls along colorful catwalks.
Water trickled, drawing Shayne's eye
to a pool full of lazily swimming fish.
"Hi, I'm Gerardo Martin, and these are
Thanh Vannuy," -- a college-age Asian boy --
"and Tai Davis," -- a teenage Asian boy.
"Welcome to Purrtland House. We've
been expecting you. Come on, and
I'll show you to your new room."
"Thank you," Shayne whispered,
and followed Gerardo downstairs.
"Here's your bedroom," Gerardo said,
opening a door. "Make yourself at home."
It was a nice room, with an easy chair
and a dressing bench besides the bed,
all done in neutral browns and blue-grays.
It took less than a minute for Shayne
to put away everything ey owned
and go back up to the living room.
Ey sat on the curving couch, trying
and failing not to start crying.
"Oh shit, what do we do now?"
Tai said, sounding panicked.
"I'll get the emergency kittens,"
Thanh said as he hurried away.
"You're safe here," Gerardo said,
wrapping Shayne in a blanket.
Thanh returned with a basket of kittens:
a tortoiseshell, a gray calico, a gray tabby,
and two tabbies with white markings.
"I like to put them inside my shirt,"
he said as he unpacked them.
That sounded wonderful, so
Shayne tucked the kittens
into the front of eir hoodie.
Most of them promptly fell asleep
in a warm, buzzing heap but the gray
poked his head out through the neck.
"What's his name?" Shayne asked,
petting the fuzzy ears. "He's cute."
"Nothing yet," said Gerardo. "We're
waiting for something to come up."
"What about Rallentando?" ey said.
"It means gradually slowing down,
and he has such a musical purr."
"That sounds perfect," said Gerardo,
and the kitten meowed his agreement.
Shayne snuggled deeper into the couch
and cradled the purring kittens. Eir life was
still a disaster, but a day full of kittens
surely couldn't be all bad.
* * *
Notes:
This poem's notes are long, so they appear elsewhere.