Wallace Stevens

I have this grey, striped tiger cat,
Whose undercoat is a dirty white,
Yellowish, like a mountain lion,
And I named it Wallace Stevens
Who, too, gave names to real things,
Which made their beings quite different
To us,
But not so very different
To themselves,
Like this jarful of blackbirds.

Right now,
On Monday, November 12 at 11:00 p.m,
Central Standard Time,
This cat that I call Wallace Stevens
Is licking his own fur,
And will not be distracted by names.