Cat Duet

By Ethel Jacobson

My calico cat was out

Chasing grasshoppers in the clover,

Prancing giddily all about

Till the gray cat ambled over.

They stood there, toe to toe;

They glared there, eye to eye.

Then one of them growled very low

And one answered very high.

The first howled louder yet.

The other increased his wails.

Then they sang a sort of duet

Up, down, and between the scales.

Like squeaky doors they screeched.

Then stopping in mid-cry,

They went bouncing across the field

After one white butterfly.