He was urged to prepare for success: "You never can tell,

    he was told over and over; "others have made it;

    one dare not presume to predict. You never can tell.	



Who’s Who in America lists the order of cats

    in hunting, fishing, bird-watching, farming,

    domestic service--the dictionary order of cats



who have made it. Those not in the book are beyond the pale.

    Not to succeed in you chosen profession is unthinkable.

    Either you make it or--you’re beyond the pale.



Do you understand?"

                   "No," he shakes his head.

    "Are you ready to forage for freedom?"

                                          "No," he adds,

    "I mean, why is a cat always shaking his head?



Because he’s thinking: who am I? I am not

    only one-ninth of myself. I always am

    all of the selves I have been and will be but am    not."



"The normal cat," I tell him, "soon adjusts

    to others and to changing circumstances;

    he makes his way the way he soon adjusts."



"I can’t," he says, "perhaps because I’m blue,

    big-footed, lop-eared, socially awkward, impotent,

    and I drink too much, whether because I’m blue



or because I like it, who knows. I want to escape

    at five o’clock    into an untouchable world

where the top is the bottom and everyone wants to escape



from the middle, everyone, every day. I mean,

    I have visions of two green eyes rising

    out of the ocean, blinking, knowing what I mean."



"Never mind the picture, repeat after me

    the self’s creed. What he tells you you

    tells me and I repeats. Now, after me:



I love myself, I wish I would live well.

    Your gift of love breaks through my self-defeat.

    All prizes are blue. No cat admits defeat.

The next time that he lives he will live well."