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January 18, 1975

 

January 18, 1975 is the day Chester Kallman died. This American poet and colleague of Auden, had every poetic skill--he only lacked a sense of the fragility of words. In his poem "The Only Child," his very urban childhood, and very urban cats are described:

...
All boiling cabbage seemed suicidal. What leftovers
have you to feed your cats?

...
I have a small backyard
For dropping garbage into, a cat's realm for survey;
All theirs to rout for food:
Each prowls wrapped in a unique savagery, each litters
Its own Great Birnam Wood.

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