“Larches, gentling” by Jill Klein (Poetry ’16)

Larches, gentling

My husband likes to say you are what you do,
something he read. You are what you do, he says,

usually referring to something he’d like to do
more of, like sex. I’m more on the you are who you are

side of things, a being, although I’d like to be
doing more sex. My cat, who is dying, likes to snuggle

in my armpit near my mammaries. I wonder if it brings back
memories of her 6-month old mother, who had done sex

somewhere with another feral cat, done birth. She was a cat
whose kittenhood had been cut short. All to say what?