IF OSCAR SAYS IT'S SO

IF OSCAR SAYS IT'S SO

If Oscar says, it's time to go,
I'm tempted to believe him.
That strange cat who is in the know,
Who hails from dear Rhode Island.
I've often pondered on his legend
And on his special gift,
On just what he would say to me.
Should his feline brain I pick.

A death cat could prove quite handy,
Though frightful it would soon turn dandy,
To feel Oscar's warm form in the bed beside me,
Letting me know my time has come,
Letting me know my world's gone numb,
Letting me know it's okay to let go.

Oscar the telepathic cat,
Who eschews the living and sides with the dying,
Oh to possess a cat like that,
With a sixth sense as it were,
The alignment of your stars 
Aligns with the feel of his fur.

Oscar knows somehow ahead of time,
When time is no more,
When there's nothing left to say,
When it's time to close the store,
To put a padlock on your dreams,
To write your last infernal will,
To make your final testament.
Oscar is a sweet and tender honey,
Giving the doctors a run for their money.
He translates their garbled syntax,
Their reticence, their we don't knows.
And lays down beside you, a statement of fact.
After nudging open your door with his nose.

He can smell death in the air,
He has a kingly knowing fine tuned sense of smell,
He comforts the wild and the wicked,
On their path to heaven or hell,
And would be quite the cat to court,
To know how your affairs to sort,
If you want to hear the truth,
The echo of your final footsteps,
The fading of your timeless youth.

Your breast has no need for constant heaving,
When Oscar comforts with his gentle feline breathing,
Letting you know that right here and right now.
Are the perfect times for up and leaving.
Oscar, the wonderful death cat,
If I picked his brain for just a week,
Perhaps I'd know the perfect time,
To lose the power of speech.
Once more into the breach,
I would unreservedly go,
I'm tempted to believe it, if Oscar says it's so.

-Bruce Potts
 Copyright 2015
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Inspired by my friend Drew's Facebook post on Oscar the telepathic death cat who has an uncanny record of predicting the next to die in a nursing home in Rhode Island.