November, having dyed the sky in shades of gray, casts its shadow on a city street
scene. A cat, spurred by sudden perception, dashes from beneath a parked car and
hides under the drooping branches of a juniper bush. From this vantage point, she
observes the world as it subtly shifts through a myriad of shapes and perceptible
motions.

The air in front of her eyes is gray with sleet, the ground beneath her haunches moist
and cold. A man and his dog emerge from an alley and move along the sidewalk near
her hiding place. The man lights a cigarette with a dying cigarette then tosses the dead
one onto a mass of wet leaves covering a sewer grate at the curb of a quiet intersection.
The cat's eyes dart after the butt, following its trajectory, then return to man and dog.

The man is hunched against the weather, walking slowly behind a taut leash, the cold
wind furrowing his brow. Under heavy clouds and barren trees, his unshaven face
reveals within its form an expression of regret and resignation. The cat, focused on
every movement, is blind to the meaning of this expression.

From a different perspective, the dog that pulls on the end of the leash is focused
elsewhere, relying on a sense of smell, sniffing at the scent of other animals, traces
of passage. What a dog perceives, or how a reality derived from scent in a wordless
mind might be experienced, is a mystery to this man, or would be if he gave it any
thought. Instead, distant recollections fill his mind with a language that is meaningless
to both cat and dog.

If a cat, watching this man, could read his face and speak for herself she might say,
"The weary shades of resignation in his face and manner are visible traces of his own
mortality, the daily grind, love and regret, dreams misspent, the summer's distant
passing." But the cat neither thinks in these words nor understands the nuanced
language of a human face. Unnoticed in the evergreen foliage, she only stares,
cautiously.

Her wordless thoughts, unspoken, shape a universe outside the conception of men.
Sleet turns to snow, the sky continues to darken. As the dog pulls the man off the
curb, the cat slinks forward, turning her head to follow their passage into the
intersection. In the distance, the sound of a crow cawing, the wind rising. A car
pulling out of a driveway draws the cat's attention elsewhere.

11/15/2010

Author's Note: mostly an exercise, subject to change.

Posted on 11/15/2010
Copyright © 2026 Jim Benz