Boddhisattva Cat

Following the sun upstairs to the second bedroom where our cat is sitting on a pillow in the light. 

Now laying down on the bed. 

Looking over at him. 

Eyelids gently closing. 

Warm light across him like an aura. 

Then looking up through the window above. 

Out into the sky. 

A sky full of clouds. 

Clusters of white, grey, fuzzy little things. 

Swirling. 

Unfurling. 

Quietly metastasising across the sky. 

Covering all of it. 

Unstoppable. 

He has 4 to 6 weeks left.  

Outside, in the afternoon sun,

The shadow of a wrought iron table, 

With its decorative lacework, 

Makes half a mandala on the deck. 

Like one half of a wheel that has stopped spinning. 

The little cat upstairs, 

Half in this world, 

Half in the next. 

The medicine in his body shrinking the cancer cells, 

Until they come back stronger,

And the medicine becomes redundant.

The wheel of suffering begins to turn again.

The cat upstairs. 

An orb of light falling upon his little frame. 

An ethereal beam coming down to take him, 

But disappearing as it reaches his body.

Not yet. 

Not now.

Boddhisattva cat in his circle of light.

Photography by Layla Jafary