Present Narratives 48.

                    48.

My mother

knit me a sweater

with big wooden buttons

about 45 years ago.

Finally –too ragged to wear–  I cut the buttons off

and kept them.

I bunched up the sweater

and stuffed it

inside a cardboard box

so some cats could stay warm

in the winter.

I'm amazed

at how carefully they arrange it,

with one sleeve

poking out of the hole

that serves as the entrance

to the box.

I pushed it back in a couple of times;

they always pulled it back out.

Just one sleeve.

Several litters of kittens

Have been born on that sweater.

My mother would have approved.

She liked cats.

The sweater is pretty encrusted & fragrant now.

I'll probably toss it

and replace it with a clean towel or something.

But not yet.