I Am Not Your Lover

Listen, we need to talk

I am not your lover

You are human, I am a cat!

We are of different species

I have the DNA of Emperor, the Great Wildcat

Thousands of years ago

My honorable ancestors were pest control officers

Through Africa to Europe, America and Asia

Now we have lost all our skills to survive in the wild

It’s all because of you and your ancestors

Taming and keeping us as pets

I deserve respect as a descendant of the Great Wildcat

Yet you place me in a tiny sleeping pad in your small apartment

That bores me out of my mind

I look out the small window

Seeing no fields or hills that I long to run about

I walk in circles listlessly the whole day

Can only meow to whatever city noises that I don’t care for

Until you come home dead tired, asking for my company

You expect me to wag my tail, show my love and absolute loyalty to you

Oh, please!

I am not your lover

You are a human, I am a cat

Just don’t kiss my face all over while rubbing my ears

And don’t break my ribs by holding me too tight

I am tired of hearing your complaints at work

And broken romances with your merry-go-round girlfriends

I’d rather sit by the kitchen window saying hi to pigeons flying by

Oh no

Don’t treat me like your lover

Don’t dress me up like a human idiot

I have a beautiful fur coat of my own from my mom

I need no silly sweater on my back and socks on my four paws

Definitely no huge pink ribbon bow on my head

And no sunglasses on top of my nose

I hate you the most when you put me in a baby carriage

As if I am handicapped and I am a human baby

Really, it is not funny, stop humiliating me

Like the way you humiliate your girlfriends

This time

You’ve got to get it right

I am not your lover and I am not your therapist

I have no desire for human intimacy

I am a cat with pride for self-sufficiency and dignity

I now request you to leave me alone and respect my privacy

You will never take away my freedom nor

Coerce me to love you like a human being

We are of different species

You are human, I am a cat

Do you get it or not?

S.P. Ma

Feb 2020