The cat and moon

[eclipse]

The wind rested on top of the branches of

a tree in the park, not blowing below them.

Sappho the cat followed the steady flow of

spirits leaving the earth, passing the flakes of

snow. The night searched for a cradle to lay

down it's body of dreams, Sappho rubbed her

head on Isaac's feet, as he opened his eyes

daylight poured out like light entering a cave,

he slept in the park and supplied black and

whit Sappho with her first meal of the day.

 

This was the tenth Christmas Isaac had been

homeless and spent this time of year living

on the park, the cat also appeared to be of

no fixed abode, but unusually would not harm

any of the birds that resided here, she would often

lay on Isaac's with her ear pressed against his

stomach, he had a dream that night about being

lost in the desert and asking a sphinx for directions.

Sappho watched as her friend built a snowman

before leaving the park to walk the streets where

he would see the fellow homeless sleeping in

doorways, the faces in the coffee shops were as

blank as that of winter, they did not see snow lit

boughs. Isaac had sat on winter's plough and it

wouldn't allow despair from the driver. Wine bars

and large houses and their hard stares never

bothered Isaac, a cat appeared in a window with

tinsel in it's mouth, someone had put a crucifix

on a snowman in the garden, it had a gold chain

and silver cross, this was incongruous to this homeless

man-the windows of the house cried tears of silver and gold.

this winter two tales had been told of those with and those

without.

 

Sappho was sleeping next to the snowman when Isaac arrived

back on the park that evening, he started to experience a strange

vision of a heart beating next to a crucifix, he the saw a heart

thumping through the bark of a tree. The cat had left three lots of

prints in the snow, Isaac had three dreams that night in synchronicity.

one dream about angels creating a sun thread by thread, black angels

breaking up the moon and one about a remote figure flicking his fingers

through different Universes.

 

Isaac knew he now contained a duality and the leaves on the trees were

like the souls of spirits who walked the earth until they were ready to leave,

he was a fruit tree ghosting through history seeking the correct climate to

plant his roots. Isaac started a fire, the snowman refused to melt, false

prophets had fallen right through history, two sets of green eyes could see

them in the flames. Clouds above were like prayers, Isaac took a few floating

them on the park, a robin flew through them, a singing wound passing through

time. The snowman's features altered imperceptibly to resemble those of it's

maker.

 

Sappho followed Isaac through empty streets in the early hours and watched him

build snowmen in different gardens, they too would alter gradually to resemble their

maker. Isaac started to experience a new emotion, his inner landscape was being

transformed. Their was a brief surge in altruism amongst the locals, donations to

food banks increased, the health of rough sleepers improved until the snow melted.

 

An echo of a planet falling from a fruit tree in some unknown place and the indifference

to closed eyes of a dreaming sphinx stitching links to unleash chaos alarmed Isaac, he

imagined the tree next to the snowman growing hands, some wore rings, others held

the pages of a book, he had to find fingerprints that matches his own, a candle fell from

the tree through loose fingers with an imprint, Isaac realized he was a candle containing

the indentation of a distant figure.