I share my home with two green-eyed sisters;

non-identical octuplets both.

One wears a coat of even toned brindle

with practical socks of brown

Black shoes.

The other wears a coat of many patterns

Perfectly paired with dainty white socks;

Pink shoes.

My girls have no names known to me.

I wonder what they call each other.

Black shoes might be Brodgeida, Munjigara, Gawdybogs

Pink shoes may be Itzina, Shinxy or Pankle

They play-fight and course.

They tolerate and adore.

They are two faces of one cat.

I call them ‘girly girls’, poppets,

Lumpy and liquid gold,

Destroyer and Perfection,

Greedy and Morsel,

Patience and Antsy,

But try as I may I cannot find their human names.

Parsley and celery, Jemima and Jupiter,

Dill and Pickle 

But nothing seems to suit.

I have had cats before and their names came to visit

In the first embrace

I call them with a whistle

A flutter of the fingers

‘I’m home girly girls’,

‘Good morning little ones’.

Am I dishonoring them?

What will I write on their grave sticks;

Here lies whistle or flutter?

Flustered when asked for their names

It disconcerts me at times

Maybe I should just ask them.

Bridget March Feb 2020