I’ve named the black-and-white cat “Checkers”
S/he scatters when I see her, hides behind Kerouac’s tree
A fool, I greet her: You’re a visitor, like me
Let’s be neighbors in this place not mine
See? Sam in his Superman shirt says “hi”
The man over there waves hello morning and night
And I sit on the porch, rereading “On the Road” (the cat inches back)
As neighbor yells at a speeding car of boys: “Slow down, you peckers!”