Analysis of Death Follows Her
Gregory Baranoff 1951 (Shanghai)
Death Follows Her
Death follows her like a cat
Meowing for a meal
Walking in between her frail legs
In figure eights
Purring with its tail up
Brushing against dried, flaking skin
Avoiding the metal walker
With yellow tennis ball shoes
“Here kitty, kitty. Are you hungry?”
“Meow, meow.”
She slowly bends down
Stretches a trembling hand toward the bowl on the floor
While the other grasps the walker’s handlebar
The plastic bowl tilts and spills some leftover mix of kibble and wet food
“Meow, meow.” the cat slaps the pieces of kibble toward the back door.
“Shut up! Shut up!” she replies
She refills the plastic bowl
Chopping and mixing with purpose and determination
More canned wet food in with the premium formula of chicken and rice pellets
She sighs as she bends down once more offering the meal back to her companion
Painfully she moves away, slides her walker toward the kitchen table
And ever so slowly lowers herself into her kitchen chair
Her discomforting objections to the pain turning into cries
“Meow, meow.” death whispers. “Shut up! Shut up!” she replies defiantly.
Scheme | A XXXXXXAX BXXCXXCD XEXEXXDB |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1100 1100101 1101 10001011 0101 101111 10011101 01001010 1101011 110101110 0101 11011 10010010101101 1010101010 01011011101110011 010101101011001011 1111101 1010101 1001011000010 11110101001001100110 1111111110001110010 100110110100101010 0101101001010101 0101010110011 010111011111010100 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,115 |
Words | 199 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 25 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 217 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 46 |
About this poem
A morning interchange between my 93 year old cousin who has cancer and her cat.
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