Unhatch you April butterflies
For Maud is in a drawer.
Filling the air
With piles of overnourished fur.
Come crown the wonder of such startling size,
And tiny fish bones, spaced with violets, twine
To wreath the tips of those twin ears,
While down the graceful tabby-speckled spine
Lay bows in rows
And round white paws
That out-vie Venus or the Himalayan snows.
Those strange and ornamental eyes
Stare with shifting sights,
Cavernous
Readily ravenous,
Lugubrious with subtle feline sighs.
And irresistible, the monster skittish pat
Of prima donna paw
Stretched from silky depths of flowing fur and fat,
Most exquisite!
And so I sing
To matchless Maud
Squatting in a drawer in Spring.
–Annabel Farjeon
