There's something in my eye

Awake befor my alarm.I reach over to the shelf next to my bed and touch it. The faint green-blue backlight activates and reveals a familar loaf shape at the foot of my bed.It is Sula, my cat.I sit up and lean forward, quietly humming the first few bars of Happy Birthday.Today is her birthday. She is 18.I begin to wrap my arms around her...Fuck!She is not there.It is a piece of laundry.Fooled by lack of sleep, and glasses.She is not even in my home. Because she died. Months ago.Today would have been her birthday. She would have been 18.Behold the middle-aged man, sat up in bed, his partner still asleep beside him. There's something in his eye.A cat hair, probably. Sula, 2008--2026