The Only Thing Missing is You (#23 NaNoWriMoPrompt)

Howl’s and whines, this morning was like every other morning since you’ve been gone. I swear I can hear Tater kitty’s lungs fill before that first “yowl” announcing the approach of 6 a.m. He should be an employee for the Naval Observatory, ensuring the master clock is on time. Maybe it’s Matilda and Dover, blue heeler heightened senses, who realize it. That intake of air and they start to wiggle. I don’t open my eyes. I know they sense the change in my heartbeat and respiration, but I’ll be a monkey’s uncle if I’m going to let that cat tell me when to get up.

I get up.

A thundering herd of paws and tails down the gapped, wooden steps to the stone-floored kitchen. You know the routine.  The only thing missing is you.

(NaPoWriMo Prompt: And now for today’s (optional) prompt! Kate Greenstreet’s poetry is spare, but gives a very palpable sense of being spoken aloud – it reads like spoken language sounds. In our interview with her, she underscores this, stating that “when you hear it, you write it down.” Today, we challenge you to honor this idea with a poem based in sound. The poem, for example, could incorporate overheard language. Perhaps it could incorporate a song lyric in some way, or language from something often heard spoken aloud (a prayer, a pledge, the Girl Scout motto). Or you could use a regional or local phrase from your hometown that you don’t hear elsewhere, e.g. “that boy won’t amount to a pinch.”)