{"sf1_id":1705609,"sf2_id":"znJrKonk","title":"The Cheshire Cat","author":"Rob MacWolf","words":288,"posted_at":"2021-04-11T17:51:00.000Z","tags":["Ballade","Cat","Poetry"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1705609-the-cheshire-cat","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/znJrKonk","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/2d/ee/2deecd21-3ee5-4019-a0b7-b2145c439c1d","description":"#27 of poetry\n\nThis is definitely one that would turn into a whole story if I let it.\nMaybe someday I will.","content":"The glint you glimpse may be the twilight sun  \nBetween the shadow trees, or on the lawn  \nAll unproportioned, where the wild winds run  \nGrotesquely. Or it may be me, all gone.  \nBeneath wide hedges, wider nothings yawn,  \nAnd nothing's more nothing than I. I fear  \nNothing. Nothing to see here, ma'am. Move on.  \nYou see me smiling, but I am not here.\n\nThe behemoths are bumbling overhead.  \nThe cockroaches are stirring in the wall.  \nThey call it a party. I call it dead:  \nThe music sours, the clawing colors crawl.  \nIf you've some sense, and would evade it all;  \nThe simplest way to hide is to go clear.  \nTake me. I've faded far too far to fall.  \nYou see me smiling, but I am not here.\n\nMaterial concerns give me no pause:  \nLike smoke I slide through fingers when they clutch  \nTo smirk intangibly between your claws,  \nTo gloat, on solid you and any such.  \nYou cannot wound what is not there to touch.  \nYou can't ignore what is not there to hear.  \nBelieve me, one cannot be gone too much.  \nYou see me smiling, but I am not here.\n\nMy mirth is contextless. You cannot spell  \nThe first word of my insubstantial mood.  \nI'm grimacing or grinning. You can't tell;  \nCan't rhyme or reason me, for ill or good.  \nIn this world, where you can't do as you would,  \nWhat can you do but grin and disappear?  \nPoem nonetheless, this is an empty wood.  \nYou see me smiling, but I am not here.\n\nPrincess, take caution. If you don't see me  \nThen best assume that I am very near.  \nBut if I show my teeth, rest easily:  \nYou see me smiling, but I am not here.\n\n  \n\n  \n  \n\n","series":{"name":"poetry","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1705594-scattered-thundershowers-this-afternoon.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1705623-ballade-of-the-recently-dispossessed.json"}}