Ode to My Beloved Longtime Companion
(for Cat)

Part 1: The Girl in the Pinafore Dress and Her Dreams

She was a little slip of a girl
born to tenant farmer parents
in a large family , seventh of eight siblings,
in the farm country of southern Tennessee

Called Cat, so fittingly,
she loved the farm animals,
her pets being Porky the pig,
Lambchop the lamb, and Bossie the calf

Wearing her pinafore dress 
she ran around barefoot
eating tomatoes with salt
just picked by her from the patch

She loved to help her daddy,
driving the tractor, carrying milk pails,
gathering the eggs,
oh yes, a daddy’s girl indeed

Learning to drive the tractor,
in her pinafore dress with no shoes;
the older boys, friends of her brothers,
loaded the hay wagon, admiringly

As a young teen, she dreamed:
of boys, Elvis, cars, cheerleading,
fashion, careers, the big city;
the dreams of youth 

And some dreams do come true,
as when Elvis came to see her
while she recovered from surgery
for scoliosis in the big city of Nashville

And that dream of cars,
it would be some years later,
a little yellow VW Beetle
would carry her to Nashville to live

– Herb Stone, here&now working poetry,
    October, 2019