Out of the whitecaps translucent spheres
burst bounce leap playful as the cat
chasing his favorite fabric mouse
the only one he’ll reliably fetch
& return & wait like a dog for me
to toss again so he can jump & play
over & over as if he too were a river
racing over & over the hurdles
following again & again
the same worn path
because that is his way
& for the cat & the river
there will only ever be
one
way.

Michelle Meyer is the author The Trouble with Being a Childless Only Child (Cornerstone Press, 2024) and The Book of She (2021). Her poems have appeared in Under Her Eye: A Blackspot Books Anthology, Humana Obscura, and Welter, among others. She lives in western Wisconsin.