Sonnet XVIII: Sonnet for Simon

Leave me alone, yellow eyed demon child!
Let me sleep awhile, don’t cry when I car-
ry you out, away, get away, can’t bear
your kneading claws I need to cut, your mild-
ness, sweetly curled in sleep. Don’t fight when riled, 
don’t scream at dawn and make me get up glar-
ing, clean up after messes, tufts of hair
and litter scattered aftermath, your wild-
ness. Sorry I left the knives lying flat.
I should’ve known you’d knock them off the count-
ertop. We live together, try our best. 
I’ll never know you. Is that gap surmount-
able? No. Likely not. Still, let me rest.
Go to sleep, in the end it doesn’t mat-