Like a Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

 Like a Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

When your soul is aggravated

And your mind has no rest;

When the mounting frustrations

Put your temper to the test.

Like a cat on hot metal,

Up high upon a roof,

Alone in your discomfort,

Miserable and aloof.

Anxiously you trip and pace.

Muttering a dim whine.

Decrypting and decoding,

You strain against the time.

Can you solve it? Crack it?

Or will you break from the strain?

Will your brain elucidate it? 

Or will you slowly go insane?

Oh Cat! Why do you puzzle?

Why stay you in that place? 

What intrigue holds you captive?

What riddles do you face?

Do you ponder vast dilemmas

And unravel ancient mysteries?

Or do you simply agonize

Over trivialities?

Come down from your dizzy loft!

And leave your quandaries up there.

Discard your ruminations.

Unhand your petty cares.

Insight awaits upon the ground.

Epiphany lies below.

From unassuming shallows

Look up and you will know.

Set your thoughts above the clouds,

And lie down in the cool grass.

The greatest of enigmas

You will find within your grasp.

When you are lowly minded, 

Your heart can reach up high.

Humble contemplations

Construe oracles and signs.

But high upon the roof

You take the place of God.

Trying to spawn your own solutions

Just reveals your mortal fraud.

 

It seems, oh Cat, you are mere flesh,

A fur and feline creature.

Abdicate your high, hot throne

And regard your great Creator!

Render to Caesar what’s Caesars,

And to God what is God’s.

Leave the conundrums and secrets

To the One to Whom they belong.

Heather Wathen

September  2018