Saturday Poetry: Leonia's Lament

an excerpt from The Cat Lover (Act II of Scenes From American Life), a collaboration with composer Roberto Pacé

(This act is set in the City.  The action takes place in bedrooms, a beauty parlor, doctors’ offices, and an analyst’s office.  There are several dyads [or chairs to represent the missing member of a dyad].  The pairs are:  doctor/patient, beautician/client, man/woman, husband/wife, woman/cat, analyst/analysand.)

(Solitary woman with cat begins singing to the audience.  Eventually she is joined by a person in a white coat, evidently a physician, and she tells the physician about a troubling ailment.)

Leonia:                   I have a feeling that something’s wrong

terribly wrong.

My Persian, Tutti

makes me red.

My body gets inflated

I start to cry

when I touch dear Tutti’s head.

I have a feeling that something’s wrong

terribly wrong.

I’m crying

for no reason at all

(for no reason at all).

I’m dying when sweet Tutti flicks me

with his tail.

My eyes are red.

My body gets inflated

whenever my Tutti licks me.

I start to cry.

I don’t know why.

I’m gonna die

whenever sweet Tutti flicks me

with his tail.

I’m crying…

I’m dying…

I think of marriage, I confess

when I fear I cannot keep my pet.

Am I allergic to the hair of

other mammals?

(Sometimes I can't stand my own.)